Book excerpt: As the editor of the New York Times' popular Modern Love column, Daniel Jones is privy to the deepest personal revelations of tens of thousands of strangers. In Love Illuminated, he uses his unique perspective to tease apart life's most mystifying subject. Drawing from the 50,000 tales of love that have crossed his desk, Jones traces the arc of human relationships through ten phases, starting with the pursuit, sense of destiny, vulnerability, connection, and trust of new love, and then turning to the practicality, monotony, infidelity, loyalty, and wisdom of love matured. With empathy and wry humor, he takes readers on an enlightening journey through the highs, lows, and enduring unknowns of this universal experience that rattles the head and stirs the heart.