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    All About Love: New Visions
    All About Love: New Visions
    All About Love: New Visions
    Ebook205 pages3 hours

    All About Love: New Visions

    By bell hooks

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    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. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft 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. 

    As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm 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. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 30, 2018
    ISBN9780062862174
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for All About Love

    4/5

    408 ratings27 reviews

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    • 4/5
      An easy read, and I don't agree with all of it, but certainly very thought provoking. Great for discussion or contemplation. I used half a tin of book darts! 4.0 Here are two quotes: "Psycholanalysts...critique the idea that we fall in love, (but) we continue to invest in the fantasy of effortless union. We continue to believe we are swept away, caught up in the rapture, that we lack choice and will...love (is) action, 'essentially an act of will...To love somebody is not just a strong feeling--it is a decision, it is a judgement, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go....'"'Love is an act of will--namely, both an intention and action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.'" (p. 172)Here's the second quote:"Committed love relationships are far more likely to become codependent when we cut off all our ties with friends to give theses bonds we consider primary our exclusive attention. I have felt especially devastated when close friends who were single fell in love and simultaneously fell away from our friendship....The more genuine our romantic loves the more we do not feel called upon to weaken or sever ties with friends in order to strengthen ties with romantic partners. Trust is the heartbeat of genuine love. And we trust that the attention our partners give friends, or vice versa, does not take anything away from us--we are not diminished." (p. 135)Chapters include:GraceClarityChildhood Love LessonsHonestyCommitmentSpiritualityValuesGreedCommunityRomanceLossHealingDivinityDefinitely worth reading.
    • 4/5
      bell hooks is a well known black feminist writer, but I had not read anything by her so I jumped into a recent group read. I was a bit disappointed because this one was less about feminism per se and started out feeling more like a self-help book. I do understand, though, that learning how to love yourself and others can be a form of feminism. This one examined the concept of love – not the romantic, falling-into-love of the western world but a more philosophical analysis of all the type of love one can enjoy – starting out with the way to honor and understand yourself and ending with love of God/spiritual love. Lots of food for thought, here. I ended up reading several chapters more than once and think I should revisit parts of it periodically as a sort of meditation.Not everyone's cup of tea, but I'll give it four stars.
    • 5/5
      Leitura complexa porém muito necessária e importante para o mundo
    • 5/5
      This book assisted me in my current journey into loving, forgiveness, and understanding my love for Allah. I am forever grateful to bell hooks.
    • 5/5
      Transformative in self awareness and an ignition into hope in the world. If anything, it will help you through your journey
    • 5/5
      In profound tears, what a gift. This needs to be required reading.
    • 5/5
      What a thought provoking, amazing book. 10/10 recommended read for everyone.
    • 5/5
      everyone in the entire world needs to read this book.
    • 5/5
      EXCEPTIONAL! Touching, personal, inspiring, thought provoking. What else is there to say but PLEASE read this book!
    • 5/5
      Love this book! Great self-reflections and appreciation for all of loves inner workings. I’m excited to dive in the next two books in this series.
    • 4/5
      I could relate to the author completely. Well written. Loved the honest tone used by the author in such a cynical world.
    • 5/5
      This book is really amazing and has completely changed the way I view love for myself and others. I highly recommend everyone to read this book.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful reflection on love from every corner. I read “let love have the last word” by common, and he referenced this Bell Hooks book several times. Clearly, she’s an inspiration. I feel called to do several things after reading this book, one being coming to grips with loving others & myself, not one or the other.
    • 2/5
      I really enjoy reading bell hooks but man this book... For the first couple of chapters, I was really into it but then at a certain point, it felt like she kept going on a tangent and then remember that she was talking about love and then tried to tie the tangent back to the necessity of love in today's world. I ended up not being able to finish the book because of that. May I just need a break or something...
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be emotional, thought-provoking, and insightful while not being inaccessible or hard to get through. In fact, I finished reading within a few days even though I was annotating! (which usually makes me take longer to finish a book) I particularly liked how hooks discussed love in all different types of contexts and not just in the typical romantic context that we are used to. Furthermore, reading bell hooks’ writing made me feel like I was being given advice from an extremely loving and kind lady who I had never met before but who was still able to tap directly into my soul. She just told me a lot of what I needed to hear!I did have a few issues with the book however, such as the occasional reliance on gender binaries and heteronormativity which reveals the book’s age. Furthermore I found some of what could be considered hooks’ advice to be too abstract and not entirely realistic or plausible. She had great ideas for what the world could look like but this vision was somewhat vague and seemingly unachievable. Finally, there were things like her mention of her multiple residences or her characterization of who I assume to be Monica Lewinsky which slightly bothered me but luckily weren’t overpowering enough to give me an overall negative impression of the book or it’s author.
    • 4/5
      If loving and being loved is Important to you, read this book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Coming from a deeply religious background, this was at times a refreshing take and at times a confusing regurgitation on love. The first few chapters were the best I think, establishing that our understanding of love starts immediately in childhood, and that children having no rights in our country are often the targets for abuse. And love and abuse cannot coexist. Similarly, love and power/domination cannot coexist, so having a partnership where one is domineering over the other (i.e. traditional gender-role marriage) cannot be fulling loving.I was not as enamored of the reflections on culture and love, where she often says something along the lines of "nowadays we are too greedy to love" or some such sentiment. I really don't think human nature has changed that much over the centuries. I think the rich always strive to maintain power and the poor struggle to survive. The expressions of greed or security may have shifted, but in a book on a subject as timeless as love, I think the focus should be a bit wider than the current infatuation with violent media (for example).There is a lot of biblical rhetoric in here, which I am very familiar with. And while I still subscribe to Love=God and take comfort in scripture, I am curious to know what her full background in religion is, and if she untangled the racism and patriarchy espoused by the same churches that preached those scriptures. I find that many get it backwards, taking what they can construct of God from scripture to be what love is, while we should be learning to love and be loved to find who God is. It seems like hooks is on the right side of that, but it feels like a piece missing from the narrative once biblical references are introduced.
    • 2/5
      I like this book up to a point...and then it got kind of goofy. I liked it enough to give it to my boyfriend for his birthday. I like how she writes about loving relationships between men and women that are not sexual but are romantic and meaningful and don't necessarily have to be perceived as threatning to a long term partnership or marriage.
    • 2/5
      All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks (pseudonym of Gloria Jean Watkins) was the March book from the feminist book club on Goodreads called Our Shared Shelf started by Emma Watson. The title is exactly what this book is about i.e. the study of love in a new light. Each chapter is about a different aspect of love like romantic, community, spiritual, etc. She's definitely a liberal feminist (which makes sense with the book club) so her insight is skewed in that direction (if that is an issue for you). There is a religious bent to this book so if that's not your cup of tea... Sociology, yes...at least I thought so until now. I don't know if it was the subject matter or the writing style but I found this book to be a bit of a bore and a chore. There were certain moments where I was like "ah yes this is good" but they were far outweighed by the feeling of "how many more pages til the end?" unfortunately.Thoughts I had while reading this book:•This could have been an article or an essay.•I would have preferred this to have been approached in a more scientific (specifically hard sciences) way.•A lot of this is common sense.In conclusion, I wasn't a huge fan of this. I didn't hate it but I don't think I'll be seeking this author out for any more of her books in the future. You win some, you lose some. *shrugs*
    • 4/5
      Bell takes on the mammoth task of defining love, and in my opinion she does it well. She subsequently describes how we can put that love into action whoever the relationship is with; ourselves, our parents, children, friends, work or life partner. I found the book challenging and refreshing. It has left me with a lot of questions as I continue to embark on my quest for love (true love that is). My only criticism was that I found Bell's teaching of love in relation to the Bible without including God/Jesus very confusing. However, I appreciate that she is speaking from her experience and perspective.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      You know how you repeat a word and it loses all meaning and distinction, well this book did that with the word love for me. The word appears in just about every sentence. Yes the book is about love, so it's expected. There was a lot I agreed with in All About Love, but a lot of it I felt was Bell Hooks saying this is how she lives her life and feels so we should all too. Sometimes difficult topics were over simplified and made to be about love. It's a interesting read and she makes some good observations, but too much of it feels like those damn millennials rants.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I have never read a book on love before, I had always thought them to be useless and probably coming from a point of view I don't embrace. When bell hooks wrote this book, I had to put my prejudices about relationship books aside for her, and I am glad I did. I was pleased at the sensitivity and well-rounded approach she takes to the foundation of love in our society and relationships. It would have been nice to have less of a heteronormative point of view, but she is a heterosexual women, so I guess I can understand.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      hooks is not only an activist for change, she is an activist and a believer in the right to and power of love - and her recent trilogy on the subject explores this eloquently. when i was in california back in february, a friend recommended these to me, and i’m so glad. definitely these are some of the best and most progressive books i have read on defining, understanding, and looking for love within the patriarchal morass we often find ourselves in. love, she posits, is subverted by popular notions of love on television and in the movies - and it is a radical act to reclaim love, and to be open to it, and to live it. i found these books hopeful and moving and they made me realize my own rights to love free of coercion and violence, and that this is as worth a goal as any.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I think I was pretty much the only person in our book club who didn't care much for this, which makes me think I'm just the wrong audience. I don't care for self help literature much, and I was hoping for something a bit more political. Some of her statements, especially around greed, rang really false, though of course I can't speak to her interpretation of her own experience and I realize she was looking at this through a relationship lens rather than a socioeconomic one. But the places where she separated out greed from poverty really tossed me out of the mix.I did like the chapter on loss and grieving, where she talked about how mourning long and hard is an appropriate reflection of the love you felt for someone. I absolutely believe that, but it's always good to hear the sentiment from someone else. She had some interesting stuff to say about love and power, also, but again—wrong book for me just now. I just wasn't in the mood.
    • 4/5
      bell tells us about love. That love is a verb, something that we have to do. The main thing that I took away was that there are different types of love and that love is a choice. No more falling in love if it's a verb. Great book that is in direct odds with all the messages we hear and everything that we have been raised to think. a mind workout (a good mind workout).
    • 2/5
      I don't know if I'm just too cynical or what but this book didn't move me near as much as I desired it to. There are thirteen chapters in this collection, each an essay on a different aspect or characteristic of love. From community to greed to forgiveness to justice, each mini essay tried to tie in the author's experiences with those of renowned scholars, philosophers, and poets. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I just found it at times repetitive and wandering. I'm not disagreeing with the author on any of her laments or hope for love, I just found my brain drifting away as I tried to focus on reading this. One passage that really stood out to me was, "Many of choose relationships of affection and care that will never become loving because they feel safer. The demands are not as intense as loving requires. The risk is not as great. So many of us long for love but lack the courage to take risks." A very thoughtful, insightful, feminist, and analytical approach to viewing and understanding love.
    • 2/5
      It took me awhile to warm up to this book ( I really liked chapters 8 - 11) and then the final chapter killed it.

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    All About Love - bell hooks

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