All About Love: New Visions: 1 (Love Song to the Nation, 1)

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).

Do yourself and everyone in your life a favour and BUY THIS BOOK TODAY!! Don't hesitate, don't think, just act. Because "love" after all, is an action. It is a verb and not a noun. It is a gesture, not just some funny feeling that overwhelms you and saves you from yourself. That is one of the many profound take-always from this book. Disney-love is a lie that we are indoctrinated into in the Western world much like the notions of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. And finding out the truth seems scary at first but you soon feel liberated once you uncover the people that are really responsible for the good fortune in your life, which surprisingly includes yourself. And now with this knowledge you can turn your attention to them and learn how to demonstrate love in return. I bought this book on recommendation 3 years before I actually read it because I incorrectly assumed it would read like an airy-fairy. NOT TRUE AT ALL. When I finally read it, it couldn't have come at a better time because the best surprise for me was a chapter on love in the time of grief. From birth to death, all notions of love are explored and elaborated so there is definitely something for everyone. I won't give any more spoilers because there's so much I wish for you to enjoy yourself for the first time. That's why I've spent my own money gifting this book THREE TIMES and recommended it to a FOURTH person that went on to gift it to a FIFTH. Just sayin, it's pretty f@$%ing awesome.

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.

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.

This was recommended to me and it sounded so great I ordered it then and there. Was worried it might not live up but it has exceeded my expectations. The author is considerate and down to earth which I needed following the passing of my Mum. I hoped the book would help me process my grief and it has with ripple effects in to coming to terms with a difficult mother/daughter relationship. Also being able to get a better relationship with myself. As with all books like this there is not a one size fits all but I feel this book is a bit like that sloopy large favorite jumper that you can't bear to part, it warmth and character judt make you feel better. And those days when its a bit tight and uncomfortable helps you see its a phase and you will be okay.

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

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.

Got book intact

There aren't many public discussions of love in America outside of popular culture -- movies, music, books, magazines -- but there should be, because lack of an expansive understanding of and capacity for love is behind much that is wrong in our society. When bell hooks noticed that the world she was living in "was no longer open to love" and that "lovelessness had become the order of the day," she decided to write about it. "I began thinking and writing about love when I heard cynicism instead of hope in the voices of young and old," she says. The result is a book that's a refreshing change from relationship advice books that completely overlook the cultural context of love -- the ways in which love is difficult for both men and women, but especially for women, in a patriarchal culture; the ways in which a more expansive understanding of love is sorely needed to set things right in a country run by fear. hooks begins by addressing the pervasive confusion about what love is, defining it as M. Scott Peck does: "The will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." The chapters in which hooks names "the ways we are seduced away from love" read as a litany of soul-corroding cultural norms. There is, most fundamentally, injustice to children in dysfunctional families in a culture where family dysfunction is normalized. Then there's the increasing prevalence of lying in public and private transactions alike, most recently exemplified in the Enron scandal and the priest-pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church. There's the cultural obsession with power and domination instead of a love ethic. (hooks pulls no punches when she states: "An overall cultural embrace of a love ethic would mean that we would all oppose much of the public policy conservatives condone and support.") There's also the vast and unending greed encouraged by a consumerist society. And last but not least, there's our collective fear of and at the same time worship of death. (What else could explain the great popularity of movies saturated with violence, such as "Lord of the Rings"?) Then there are the chapters where hooks explores the importance of self-love, the reality of divine love, the crucial role played by friendships and communities, the role of romantic love in helping us resolve and transform family-of-origin wounds if approached consciously, the real healing power of true love, and the yearning for love that lies behind the popular fascination with angels. The only topic I found missing from her comprehensive look at love is biophilia, that love of nature named by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. I'm coming to realize that any concept of intimacy with our particular place on earth is sorely absent from most American lives, imperiling our planet's health as well as our own. Throughout the book, it's hooks's personal revelations that make what she says credible and that especially strike a chord in me. I found in her a sister spirit. Just my age, she could be describing my relationship history when she describes her own. And herein lies my biggest quibble with the book: wishing to avoid the kind of disappointments in relationships with men I've had in the past, I want to believe that I can find satisfying love with a male, but the many generalizations hooks makes about men in our culture make me wonder. I fear she may be right when she says that "most men feel that they receive love and therefore know what it feels like to be loved; women often feel we are in a constant state of yearning, wanting love but not receiving it" (p. xx). According to hooks, many, if not most, men under patriarchy tell lies "to avoid confrontation or taking responsibility for inappropriate behavior" (p. 36), "use psychological terrorism as a way to subordinate women" (p. 41), "are especially inclined to see love as something they should receive without expending effort . . . . [and] do not want to do the work that love demands" (p. 114), are usually prevented by sexist thinking from "acknowledging their longing for love or their acceptance of a female as their guide on love's path" (p. 156), "are convinced that their erotic longing indicates who they should, and can, love . . . . [and] tend to be more concerned about sexual performance and sexual satisfaction than whether they are capable of giving and receiving love" (pp. 174, 176), and "choose relationships in which they can be emotionally withholding when they feel like it but still receive love from someone else. . . . [and ultimately] choose power over love" (p. 187). Hmmm. Men, what do you say to this? Can you deny it? "Profound changes in the way we think and act must take place if we are to create a loving culture," writes hooks. I, for one, would welcome those changes and am working on making them in myself. Despite being marred by unfortunate typos ("Living by a Love Ethnic" [viii], "perfect love casts our fear" [220]), this is a courageous and important book that should be read widely and taken to heart.

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

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

My wife loves this book. But I have only read snippets. In one, the book quotes from the Epistle of John in the Bible as stating this: "Love is God ". But the Epistle of John actually states: "Love is **of** God". That is, God is the *source* of love. Not that love is God themselves.