A review by kbeers98
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

5.0

Absolutely life changing book that altered my perceptions of love in all the beautiful multi-faceted ways that it presents to us. A great read if you’re looking to grow your safe and secure interdependence with your community and network. This book shined a light on the ways that love acts and behaves as a devotional and a service to those around us. The ways in which I am experiencing genuine love felt highlighted and the ways in which I am experiencing loveless relationships felt heavier. If you’re not ready to address the ways in which people aren’t loving you well, I don’t recommend this book. If you prioritize romantic love over your everyday partnerships and communities, I recommend this book 100 times over. The deep realization that love is as love does and that no form of love whether romantic or platonic should be weighted higher than the other has added such a feeling of peace and safety in my own body. Reminding the world that it is not a crime to long for love; nor it is a weakness to admit the ways in which our modern consumer culture encourages lovelessness and emptiness.

Two minor critiques in that it is very god-heavy! bell hooks loves god. That is 100% okay but it doesn’t leave a lot of room for spirituality and other religions. Also it is very binary, those who are not men or women (myself being non-binary) may have trouble connecting to the narratives as well as other genders. I personally felt comfortable relating to the narratives surrounding my AGAB because those are the love pitfalls that I personally had been socialized to believe. Everyone will connect with something different though that’s just my connection