All About Love

If you’ve ever thought you understood love, think again. All About Love: New Visions takes you on a deep dive into the many forms of love—romantic, familial, and societal—through the lens of bell hooks' insightful and unapologetically honest perspective. This book isn’t just for hopeless romantics, it’s for anyone who’s ever tried to figure out what love really means (and maybe even what it doesn’t). Pros: Eye-Opening Insights: bell hooks brings a fresh, critical approach to understanding love that might make you rethink everything you thought you knew. Spoiler: love isn’t always as easy as it seems, and it’s not just about flowers and chocolates. Beautiful Writing: The prose is engaging and thought-provoking without being overly academic—hooks has a way of making complex ideas accessible and compelling. Practical Wisdom: This book isn’t just theory—it offers practical advice on how love (in its many forms) can be transformative in our lives. So, while reading, you may find yourself nodding in agreement or thinking, “Wow, I need to work on that.” The Humor: Yes, there’s humor! hooks approaches serious topics with a mix of passion and wit, making you reflect on deep matters while still keeping things relatable. Cons: Not a Quick Read: This isn’t a beach-read kind of book. It’s dense with wisdom, so be prepared to take your time with it. Challenging: Some of the concepts might make you a little uncomfortable, especially if you haven’t really thought about love beyond the “I love pizza” kind of way. But that’s part of the journey, right? My Experience: I dove into All About Love expecting something profound, but I wasn’t prepared for how deeply it would resonate. hooks challenges us to redefine love—not just in relationships, but in the way we view ourselves and the world around us. After reading it, you might start seeing love everywhere (and questioning your life choices a little bit).

What a book. What a woman. bell hooks's life as an activist and writer is inspiring - worth looking it up. This book looks at how love shapes us all, and importantly, how lack of love affects our society in all sorts of ways. It's also full of profound spiritual insight about the generosity, compassion and hope that love brings.

Overall, it is a good read - you'll see by the number of book tabs showing how many really poignant or valuable points or quotes I found. However, and there's a but... I got more frustrated the further into the book I got. The first third is so rich and moving and thoughtful that I wanted to love the whole book. Why didn't i then? Part of me was reminded of how the passion of young activists normally becomes tempered by age and reality: but somehow she's still as fiery. And maybe the naieveity frustrated me. I guess I wanted to see a more congruent bridge between the social norms lived in the here-and-now and some of her broader ideas about 'love' within society. That said, I actually don't want to detract from her book - this is my personal take: she's a visionary and I love that and respect it. For folk buying the book and wondering what they'll get the answer is a mix of attachment theory, personal narrative and social philosophy. There were a couple of parts where I jarred but overall her message is wholesome. Prior to writing this I compared notes with a colleague and funnily enough he also started to lose affection for the book at a similar point and for similar reasons. But its not an expensive book and it is worth a read if you are interested in people, therapy, and visionary politics.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read, Bell Hooks really did have an amazing way with words. Her views on societal issues are spot on and what a refreshing view she had on love. A lot of teachings were incorporated on my daily routine after learning her view on practical love, however, towards the end of the book she goes into a somewhat religious tangent which didn’t resonate with me as an agnostic person. However, I think it’s the sort of book for those who can “take what resonates and leave what doesn’t” and then it is truly inspiring and insightful.

Such a great read. Very deep/heavy and insightful. As someone who loves love, this was a pleasure to read. It was nourishing to my soul and a reminder that love - no matter the type of love, helps one to heal. The latest chapter was one of significance for me, the discussion about Angels and that higher power is something I’m well aware of and reading it back in a book, was pleasurable. Definitely a book I will recommend and refer back to on my life’s Journey.

I did not enjoy this book, agree with all the top reviews on good reads

Got book intact

Citing the author’s words for this book: “I found many of my angels in favorite authors, writers who created books that enabled me to understand life with greater complexity. These works opened my heart to compassion, forgiveness, and understanding.”

Interesting book with a bit feminist orientation but still worth reading as it has good objective ideas.

Great book

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Excellent read! This book changed the way I think about love and relationships.

so important read for everyone.