Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

14 reviews

takarakei's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

I will be buying this for everyone I know :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Addiction

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

I'm glad I read this, and love bell hooks' reflective and earnest writing style in these essays. A few essays stand out for me (in particular, Honesty: Be True to Love, is one I'm still thinking about). I would note that this was originally published in the early 00s, and modern readers (like me!) may struggle with how hooks engages with gender essentialism (challenging it but ultimately still writing within its assumptions and constructs, which tracks for the early aughts) and Christianity and spiritualism. There are broad assumptions made about men and women in M/F relationships, in particular (and some odd commentary on and apologism for Bill Clinton that doesn't sit particularly well today), but I suspect that this is a generational difference, as the audience she was writing for had a different set of cultural touchpoints and childhood experiences in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I think there is a lot of value in these reflections for readers who recognize the different challenges early feminists faced and the constructs they were still largely fighting against. And ultimately, hooks' thoughts are a gift for us as we look back and forward, and I appreciate her thoughts on community care and living by a love ethic, that have so much relevance for us today.

Notes on the audio specifically: I really struggled with the audiobook, honestly. I loved the narration by January LaVoy, but the book itself is incredibly difficult to navigate. None of the chapter titles included in the print book are included in the audiobook's visible chapter titles, and the audiobook numbers the preface, introduction, etc., meaning that the chapter numbering in the audiobook never aligns with the individual essays. I constantly felt confused about where I was, and I feel frustrated that this was sloppily done. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Infidelity

ashleybeereads's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Classism, and Physical abuse

Minor: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

justinareads's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Addiction

kaiulanilee's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Sexism

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) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism

Minor: Grief, Addiction, and Death

cosmic_blooms's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.5

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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.  

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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.

keeganrb's review

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Grief

Minor: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Addiction

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Grief, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Death, and Emotional abuse