The Atlantic Hotlist

1. Caring for Your Introvert (March 2003)
The habits and needs of a little-understood group. By Jonathan Rauch

2. Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (February 1982)
An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign. By Edward Jay Epstein

3. The Top 100 (December 2006)
The most influential figures in American history.

4. As We May Think (July 1945)
Near the close of World War II, Vannevar Bush, the former director of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development, urged scientists to turn their energies from war to the task of making the vast store of human knowledge accessible and useful. The "infostructure" he sketched out—including a proposal for what might be seen as a kind of precursor to hypertext—was destined to be realized in what we now know as the Internet.

5. Are You There God? It's Me, Monica (February 1982)
How nice girls got so casual about oral sex. By Caitlin Flanagan

6. What Is the Koran? (January 1999)
Researchers with a variety of academic and theological interests are proposing controversial theories about the Koran and Islamic history, and are striving to reinterpret Islam for the modern world. This is, as one scholar puts it, a "sensitive business." By Toby Lester

7. Is God an Accident? (December 2005)
Human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena—and this predisposition is a by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry. By Paul Bloom

8. Why Iraq Has No Army (December 2005)
An orderly exit from Iraq depends on the development of a viable Iraqi security force, but the Iraqis aren't even close. The Bush administration doesn't take the problem seriously—and it never has. By James Fallows

9. When North Korea Falls (December 2005)
The furor over Kim Jong Il's missile tests and nuclear brinksmanship obscures the real threat: the prospect of North Korea's catastrophic collapse. How the regime ends could determine the balance of power in Asia for decades. The likely winner? China. By Robert D. Kaplan

9. Karl Rove in a Corner (November 2004)
Karl Rove is at his most formidable when running close races, and his skills would be notable even if he used no extreme methods. But he does use them. His campaign history shows his willingness, when challenged, to employ savage tactics. By Joshua Green