All About Love: New Visions

Written by bell hooks

Narrated by January LaVoy

A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' ""Love Song to the Nation"" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.

“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society stricken with lovelessness—not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. 

In this landmark book, bell hooks explores the question “What is love?” Her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Disputing that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly love and community can change hearts and minds for the better. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9780063342699

bell hooks

bell hooks was an influential cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer. Celebrated as one of America’s leading public intellectuals, she was a charismatic speaker and writer who taught and lectured around the world. Previously a professor in the English departments at Yale University and Oberlin College, hooks was the author of more than 17 books, including the New York Times bestseller All About Love: New Visions; Salvation: Black People and Love; Communion: the Female Search for Love, as well as the landmark memoir Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood.

Reviews for All About Love

[alexcolvard4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really appreciate how bell hooks looks at the many ways she was and was not taught about love. The last couple chapters were harder to get through - she talked about the Bible story of Jacob and Rachel and Angels from a mystical perspective. Overall the book was worth the listen- would recommend to folks that don’t understand what healthy love is or if they deserve a healthy love.

[jon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book it started off very well but I did find that it wasn’t as good towards the end. Still a must read

[Tam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow!!! What an awesome and great book.!!! All about love

[Jessica Harrison · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’m going to have to go get a hard copy of this book. There were so many good nuggets that I want to meditate on and think about. This book is literally all about love. Not just romantic love, but what it means to live by a love ethic out in the world, and also how many of us may have been cared for but not received love from parents/caregivers. We can’t give something we’ve never received.

[Wendy Brand · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved the beginning and was right on track and in agreement. Then she got to bashing conservatives and a bunch of political nonsense. I don’t think that’s love.

[Sulaiman R. Khan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I finally found the spaciousness to read this book. Wow, I loved it! Powerful, ethereal, and heartful. Every student should be required to read every year from year 6 and from then on every year. For that matter, everyone should read this book at least once a year. Extremely highly recommended.

[Leah Brickhouse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bell Hooks gives pause, thought, and space for one's definition of love. This is food for your soul. Don't be afraid to try it.

[Yolanda Mármol · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This essay "All About Love," the author boldly expresses her thoughts and reflections regarding Love, both in our daily lives, in the community, among people, in couples, friendships, etc., as well as towards ourselves. A reflective critique on the "love" that predominates in our culture and society and how it prioritizes interests and ego struggles, the "status quo" of patriarchal, narcissistic relationships, all devoid of the love we all yearn for. It is worth noting that the author primarily focuses on couple love, recounting her disappointments and romantic disillusionments, and yet continues to believe in the power of Love. She speaks of Love in all its facets, including the healing power it holds for all people.

"When greed becomes a cultural norm, all acts of charity are viewed with suspicion, as if they were signs of weakness." (Translated from Spanish)

[VeruAllen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love as a universal source of giving and receiving. What does it mean to love and be loved in our current society? What types of socio-cultural impediments do we encounter in order to live love? Are men socially equipped to offer love? These and other questions, slightly colored with a philosophical and mystical perspective, are posed by Bell Hooks. It is very easy to read and includes some paragraphs that lead to reflection. (Translated from Spanish)