In last September’s Atlantic, Lori Gottlieb chronicled the occasionally agonizing road she traveled as a prospective single mother seeking a sperm donor, in “The XY Files.” That process recently reached its happy conclusion when she gave birth to a baby boy—shortly after she completed this month’s cover story, “How Do I Love Thee?” Gottlieb also has a book coming out this spring, I Love You, Nice to Meet You, which is co-authored by Kevin Bleyer, of The Daily Show, and examines dating from male and female perspectives. And Paramount recently optioned her previous book, Stick Figure, about her childhood battle with anorexia, for a movie on CBS.

“Demolition Men,” Jonathan Rauch’s article in the March Agenda, considers the transformative possibilties of centrist politics worldwide. Meanwhile, an older article of Rauch’s—this one focused squarely on the private sphere—is causing a stir of its own. In the March 2003 Atlantic, Rauch published “Caring for Your Introvert,” a sort of instruction manual for co-existing with people for whom “to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleep, as nourishing as eating.” Claiming for introverts the motto “I’m okay, you’re okay—in small doses,” Rauch’s piece became one of the most-read articles in the history of The Atlantic’s Web site and a sensation in the blogosphere. Reflecting on the phenomenon in a new interview posted on The Atlantic Online, Rauch said, “It never occurred to me when I wrote it that there would be so many other people out there with whom this would resonate so strongly. But one of the main points I see over and over again in the mail I've been getting is, ‘I'm not alone! There are others like me.’ This sense of empowerment because of not being alone is very important to people. That in itself, to the extent that that takes hold, would be a very important part of correcting the introvert/extrovert imbalance.”

Rauch invites other introverted insurrectionists to weigh in at introversy@theatlantic.com.

Associate Editor Ross Douthat started at The Atlantic in the fall of 2002, and when not writing Primary Sources or editing the Letters to the Editor section, his leisure reading tends toward the fictional. “Right now,” he said, “I’m slowly working my way through Europe Central,” a work of historical fiction by William T. Vollman. The author “is basically insane,” Douthat says. “But the book is brilliant, although it can be a little much.” The book tells a series of stories about people—usually real people, like Dmitri Shostakovich—from both the Russian and German perspectives. Douthat chose it, he said, because “like anyone, I love books about World War II. But it’s rare to find novelistic impressions about the Russians and the Germans—both sides were totalitarian, and they were fiercely fighting. I think that’s an interesting dynamic.”

Douthat last read Earthly Powers, a history of religion in modern Europe, by Michael Burleigh, which he found “fascinating, but a little scattered and disorganized.” He’s uncertain what he’ll tackle next, but he hopes it will be something ambitious, like The Brothers Karamazov or Shelby Foote’s Civil War history. “One of those books that if you don’t read soon, you’ll never have time for once you have a family and everything,” he says.

Follow-Up
Murder in Kazakhstan
Two of the men Paul Starobin interviewed for his December Atlantic piece on Kazakhstan's autocratic president have since been killed. Starobin comments.

Politics & Prose
Investor Politics
The author, Jack Beatty, declares that the disillusioned majority is right—America's government can be bought.

Interviews
Terra Incognita
Essayist Rebecca Solnit, the author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost, discusses the art of falling off the map.

From the Atlantic Archive | Highlights from The Atlantic's history
Sudan in Peril (April 1986)
The Sudanese refugee crisis has worsened, spreading into Chad. In 1986, Robert Kaplan reported on the region, predicting a future of famine and chaos.

Post & Riposte
Capitalism: The Movie
Do most Americans hold a more negative opinion of the free-market system than is warranted because too many movies disparage it as cruel and exploitative? Weigh in on Clive Crook's article in the March issue.
Home Alone
Do you find yourself infatuated by photos of beautifully decorated, fabulous homes? Are you willing to admit there might be Freudian implications? Share your thoughts on Terry Castle's article.

Be sure to visit Post & Riposte, the forum for Atlantic subscribers.