IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.

1. My Eight Deranged Days on the ‘Gone Girl’ Cruise

A ‘Gone Girl’ cruise? How can a cruise be themed around a book about a woman faking her own abduction to take revenge on her partner? Imogen West-Knights went to find out. 

(Slate, approx 22 mins read time)

I had wondered who my fellow travelers might be. A Gone Girl–themed vacation suggested geriatric millennials—probably women, probably thriller nerds, maybe a certain number of people who secretly hate their husbands—but “river cruise” suggested pensioners. There look to be about 70 people in the room, other than the ship’s captain and the handful of Avalon staff. They are mostly 50-plus of an even gender split. From the sounds of their voices, they are all American. I am given a glass of Champagne, the first of dozens and dozens of drinks thrust into my hands over the course of this trip, to my eventual great distress.

2. James Corden would rather not talk about that omelet

British comic actor and talk show host James Cordon came under fire this week after a famous New York restaurateur labelled him a “Cretin of a man” and the “most abusive customer since the restaurant opened 25 years ago”. 

(The New York Times, approx 6 mins reading time)

Corden was having breakfast on Thursday morning in the Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges on Manhattan’s Upper East Side when he overheard another patron at a nearby table curtly rebuking a waiter about the meal she had ordered. The eggs, it seemed, were not to her liking. Corden shot a conspiratorial glance across his own table to a New York Times reporter he was dining with and quietly said: “Happens every day. It’s happening in 55,000 restaurants as we speak. It’s always about eggs.”More archly, he added, “Can you imagine now, if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair? This is my point. It’s insane.”

3. The $30 million lottery scam

A Michigan real-estate broker became convinced he had cracked the State’s lottery—and he tricked investors into financing his scheme.

(The Atlantic, approx 33 mins reading time)

Victor Gjonaj quickly became addicted to the high of huge wins. Whenever he seemed to be on the brink of losing everything, he’d hit a jackpot. When he was up, he was on top of the world. When he was in the hole, he was only one big win away from glory. He told himself that his losses wouldn’t matter if he made one big score. He just needed a way to keep buying as many tickets as possible.

4. Why so many musicians are cancelling their tours

As the industry attempts to recover, a wealth of issues continue to wreak havoc on touring – and many of them are financial.

(The Guardian, approx 6 mins reading time)

While costs are rising, artist fees are not – and tickets to regular shows are harder to move than ever. Many fans aren’t ready to return to the crowded, sweaty mosh; others are dealing with the cost of living crisis. And with the exception of blockbuster shows, people who do buy tickets are tending to buy them last-minute – creating a cashflow problem for artists, and a confidence problem too.

5. How Colleen Hoover Rose to Rule the Best-Seller List

Hoover self-published her first book a decade ago and has since sold more than 20 million books. She’s done it her way.

(The New York Times, approx 12 mins read time) 

When she self-published her first young adult novel, “Slammed,” in January of 2012, Colleen Hoover was making $9 an hour as a social worker, living in a single-wide trailer with her husband, a long-distance truck driver, and their three sons. She was elated when she made $30 in royalties. It was enough to pay the water bill.Hoover, 42, didn’t have a publisher, an agent or any of the usual marketing machinery that goes into engineering a best seller: the six-figure marketing campaigns, the talk-show and podcast tours, the speaking gigs and literary awards, the glowing reviews from mainstream book critics.

6. My Pregnancy vs. The State of Texas

At 18 weeks pregnant, Amanda Zurawski was told that the loss of her daughter was inevitable. But she adds what happened next was not. 

(The Meteor, approx 6 mins reading time)

If we had conceived the previous year when we began our journey with infertility, or if we lived in a different state, my healthcare team would have been able to treat me immediately and end my doomed pregnancy as soon as possible, without risk to my life or my health. I wouldn’t have had to wait in anguish for days for the inescapable ill fate that awaited. But this was August 23, 2022, in the state of Texas, where abortion is illegal unless the pregnant person is facing “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.” Somehow, any medical help to make the horrific inevitability of losing my beloved child 22 weeks early less difficult qualified as an illegal abortion. 

 …AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

What would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian?

In 2016, the BBC Future series grappled with the question. 

(BBC Future, approx 7 mins reading time)

‘It’s a tale of two worlds, really,’ says Andrew Jarvis of Colombia’s International Centre for Tropical Agriculture. ‘In developed countries, vegetarianism would bring all sorts of environmental and health benefits. But in developing countries there would be negative effects in terms of poverty.’

Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.