The turning points, revelations, epiphanies, dramatic changes, the opening or closing of a door—in a life, a career, a love—can occur in a single glorious, terrible, unpredictable, serendipitous, crucial, calamitous, chaotic, amazing . . . Moment. The creators of the enormously popular Not Quite What I Was Planning and Six-Word Memoir series now offer stories of the Moment—the one-time chances, unexpected coincidences, and sudden catastrophes that made all the difference in the story of one life. The results are triumphant, outrageous, heartwarming, heartbreaking, embarrassing, illuminating, and inspiring—life-changing moments from contributors Dave Eggers, Diane Ackerman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bill Ayers, Jennifer Egan, A. J. Jacobs, Judy Collins, and many more.

They call it the “crossroads of the world,” and from its inception Times Square has been the pulsing heartbeat of a city filled with life. Now, in this eclectic and electrifying collection, twenty acclaimed mystery writers take readers into the past history of Times Square, where danger lurked around every corner, and where characters walked its streets with the easy confidence of a con man. Spanning over one hundred years—from its christening on April 19, 1904 to the contemporary “Disney-ized” version, Crime Square is filled with guys, dolls, booze, and bullets. With contributions by such award-winning authors like Parnell Hall, John Lutz--and a host of others--CRIME SQUARE is the ultimate collection of crime stories, set in the world’s ultimate destination.

Eliot Gordon would do anything for her family. A 38-year-old working mother, she lives a conventional but fulfilling life in suburban Atlanta with her partner, Grant Delaney, and their three daughters. The two older girls are actually Eliot's stepdaughters, a distinction she is reluctant to make as she valiantly attempts to maintain a safe, happy household . . . Then Finn Montgomery, Eliot's long-lost first love, appears, triggering a shocking chain of events that threatens to unravel everything she's worked for. How Eliot survives—and what she loses in the process—is a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved a child. With hilarious honesty, wrenching depth, and a knockout twist, I Couldn't Love You More illuminates the unbreakable bonds of family and reveals the lengths we'll go to save each other, even as we can't save ourselves.

A father celebrates his son’s life while trying desperately to save it in this luminous character study­–cum–medical odyssey. Weber recounts his teenage son Damon’s battle with enteropathy, a usually fatal disorder, linked to a congenital heart defect, that starves the body of protein. Weber threw himself into researching and managing his son’s ailment, but nothing stopped the progressive debilitation and wasting; finally Damon received a heart transplant that brought new disasters in its wake. Weber’s detailed, harrowing narrative of Damon’s struggle is in part an indictment of modern medicine, which he depicts as a combination of miraculous technology with dangerously flawed basic caregiving; his furious accusations of substandard practice at New York’s prestigious Columbia Presbyterian Hospital—erroneous prescriptions, botched diagnoses, slipshod nursing, callous doctoring, “drive-by exams”—will raise eyebrows. But Weber reserves most of his energy for a tender, clear-eyed profile of his son. Small, sickly, but charismatic and a natural actor, Damon cunningly conceals his physical weaknesses while extracting every ounce of happiness from his straitened circumstances; even as he fades, this kid seems to own every room he enters. Weber’s heartbreaking story gives us both a tragic cautionary tale and a moving account. (Feb.)