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bookfriend8's review
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
an excellent book on how we can practice love to improve interpersonal relationships and society as a whole. many things could be resolved if people learned how to truly love themselves and others. i particularly enjoyed this work by hooks because it doesn't only reflect on romantic love, but also on general feelings of compassion and mutual respect, which she argues are lacking in the capitalist, divisive world we live in. the book had christian undertones, though; as a non-christian certain parts lost me a bit (especially the final chapter)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism
Minor: Grief, Addiction, and Death
kers_tin's review
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Racism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Gun violence, and Misogyny
cosmic_blooms's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Child abuse
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse
Minor: Sexual content and Body shaming
vixenreader's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
The themes are familiar (especially when compared to the years 2000 and 2023), but its perspective on finding love in a society that continues to promote lovelessness is still relevant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, and Sexism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Addiction, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Fatphobia, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Racism
Minor: Mental illness, Violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship
Discussions of isolation, homelessness, the negative affects of the mass media, and hopelessness are featured.sderi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
amaezone's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I was wondering "what is it with love and our culture ?" (A certain type of) love seems to be everywhere in the media and in social norms, and nowhere in theory and philosophy, and general social sciences. Then I picked up this book, and it helped me articulate a lot of things. For most of the book I just thought "that's it exactly!"
Essential reading.
Essential reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Minor: Death, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief
jayisreading's review
reflective
slow-paced
2.25
I’m a bit surprised that I ended up not enjoying All About Love as much as I thought I would. I greatly admire bell hooks and the knowledge she has shared with the world (Teaching to Transgress is one that I found quite impactful). I entered All About Love to learn about… well, love. I suppose I did, but I didn’t anticipate it to be as spiritually guided as it ended up being. Not that this is a bad thing, but there was almost a New Age quality to this book that made me roll my eyes a little.
More than that, though, I was shocked that despite the incredible focus on the ways in which issues such as misogyny, sexism, and capitalism stop us from truly loving one another, hooks’ ideas did not apply to everyone. For example, her comment on Monica Lewinsky (called a “young woman”) as “greedy” took me by surprise. What happened to respect, which she emphasized was a necessary part of love? I also took issue with hooks’ insistence that queer people should find ways to stay in touch with toxic family members. This isn’t a possibility for many members of the queer community, especially if they want to put their happiness and well-being at the forefront, which are important because they lead to the finding of a deep sense of love that they weren’t given before.
I want to step away from the criticisms to at least highlight things I appreciated about this book, though. For one, I truly appreciated that hooks challenged the idea of love being exclusive to romance. I was most taken to her points on how we can learn from platonic love and community building to deepen other forms of love. I also liked that she showed love to be a multifaceted thing, that it is comprised of care, respect, responsibility, commitment, among other traits that displays the complexity of loving.
All things considered, writing about love is a huge undertaking, especially to break it down the way hooks did. However, I think this book is of its time (first published in 1999) in its language and understanding of the world. If there’s anything I’ve come to realize while making my way through this book, it’s that love is ever-changing and difficult to explain given everything that’s happening in the world every day. hooks tried, and I think there were some valuable points to take away from this book, but it didn’t make the impact I was hoping it would.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Grief, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Death, and Emotional abuse
corneliusmcstrawberry's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
this book is a bit self-help-y but it’s not that bad. previous reviews have noted that bell hooks shames monica lewinsky, and she does, which seemed anti-feminist and insensitive. aside from that, there were moments that really stuck w me and applied to my own life. survivors of abuse may find this book insightful, comforting, and eye-opening, and i’d recommend it to them. there were some points where i found myself skimming on autopilot - reading a 200 page book solely about love becomes a bit monotonous after a while and so i had to take breaks. but bell hooks’ writing style is clear and direct, and as i alluded to earlier, she makes a lot of great points about how love and abuse cannot coexist even though our culture begs to differ in many ways. i’ve seen this book quoted and recommended online a lot, which is why i read it, and indeed it is chock-full of inspiring and thoughtful quotes about love. overall, i liked it. this is not the first of bell hooks’ works that i have read - i read an article of hers titled ‘women at work’ and i do believe that she deserves the praise she gets for her writings about patriarchy (which, naturally, are prominent in ‘all about love’ too).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
Moderate: Racism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Death
rieviolet's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
I have to say I have mixed feelings about this book. I came into it with maybe too high expectations but at times I really struggled to pick the book up again and keep on reading. In the end, I feel a bit "meh" about it.
On one hand, I really enjoyed some of the author's reflections, for example on the devaluation of friendships in favour of romantic bonds (although I think it was not developed much and a good portion of the book then focused mostly on romantic love) and on the negative effects of patriarchy.
And I really appreciated the definition of love that hooks included in the book: "the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth".
On the other, some reflections did not resonate with me just as much and I struggled to really absorb them, maybe I needed some more in-depth analysis/comment in certain chapters, rather than just vague and general statements.
Some other aspects of the book also left me a bit unconvinced , such as: a framework very much heteronormative and binarist in terms of gender; the sections on work and love; the section critizing Monica Lewinsky (a very uncomfortable passage to read that I could have done without); the reflections about forgiveness (especially when in relation to queer people, thank you but I'm going to stay very far away from bigoted and hurtful people if I am able to do so, even if they are family members).
Also some parts of the book just are not for me personally. Whenever religion, biblical scriptures, angels etc. get mentioned I turn into that Mike Wazowski's meme, "Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!". But that is obviously on me and people who are religious and /or spiritual will certainly connect more with those parts.
On one hand, I really enjoyed some of the author's reflections, for example on the devaluation of friendships in favour of romantic bonds (although I think it was not developed much and a good portion of the book then focused mostly on romantic love) and on the negative effects of patriarchy.
And I really appreciated the definition of love that hooks included in the book: "the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth".
On the other, some reflections did not resonate with me just as much and I struggled to really absorb them, maybe I needed some more in-depth analysis/comment in certain chapters, rather than just vague and general statements.
Some other aspects of the book also left me a bit unconvinced , such as: a framework very much heteronormative and binarist in terms of gender; the sections on work and love; the section critizing Monica Lewinsky (a very uncomfortable passage to read that I could have done without); the reflections about forgiveness (especially when in relation to queer people, thank you but I'm going to stay very far away from bigoted and hurtful people if I am able to do so, even if they are family members).
Also some parts of the book just are not for me personally. Whenever religion, biblical scriptures, angels etc. get mentioned I turn into that Mike Wazowski's meme, "Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!". But that is obviously on me and people who are religious and /or spiritual will certainly connect more with those parts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, and Grief
Minor: Cancer, Addiction, and Suicidal thoughts
bonfeld's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Reviewing this book is hard. I went in with super high expectations. I do think that despite any shortcomings, this book is an essential read for its willingness to define love and its commentary on the inner workings of love in ourselves and with others. Yes, there was a lot of gender essentialism, it was very centered on cis het relationships, yes it was weird that altho she emphasizes that romantic relationships should not be the only central relationships in our lives, every example of love she gave was about romantic love… but the overarching conversation about love as an action that leaves no room for manipulation, holding others back, abuse, etc. and distinguishing love from care were important.
Some people took issue with her insertion of religion and the last chapter about angels. Yes, there are several parts of the book that are preachy, where she just says things in a way that squashes questioning it, but that’s philosophy writing for you… In my opinion, the religious aspects were more to be taken as a metaphor - people look towards god and angels as a source of spirituality and divine ness, love can fulfill the same.
Like I said, I think this is an essential read that allows you to take away what’s important/resonates with you and leave what doesn’t.
Some people took issue with her insertion of religion and the last chapter about angels. Yes, there are several parts of the book that are preachy, where she just says things in a way that squashes questioning it, but that’s philosophy writing for you… In my opinion, the religious aspects were more to be taken as a metaphor - people look towards god and angels as a source of spirituality and divine ness, love can fulfill the same.
Like I said, I think this is an essential read that allows you to take away what’s important/resonates with you and leave what doesn’t.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Misogyny