“All About Love: New Visions” by bell hooks is a book about, well, love. But it’s not your typical love story. In fact, it’s not really a love story at all. It’s more of a guidebook, or even a manifesto, about how to achieve successful relationships.

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The book starts off with a brief history of love, tracing its origins back to the Greek concept of eros. From there, hooks goes on to explore the different types of love that exist: parental love, romantic love, platonic love, and self-love. She argues that we have become a society that is obsessed with romantic love, to the detriment of all other forms.

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hooks then goes on to offer her own vision of love, which is based on the idea of “lovingkindness.” This is a form of love that is not based on passion or possession, but rather on connection, caring and mutual respect. It’s the kind of love that can exist between family members, friends, and even strangers.

The book is full of useful advice about how to achieve successful relationships, both romantic and otherwise. But it also provides food for thought about the nature of love itself. If you’re looking for a new way to think about love, this book is definitely worth a read.

A new path 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.

Here’s what do others say about this book:

Some friends recommended this book to me because I was going through something traumatic, and I think they were really right. bell hooks talks about love in a way that’s so healing. Love is universal, tangible, and transformative. And it comes in so many forms. Also, love isn’t about an absence of pain or grief, but something that lives alongside it and makes being alive more bearable. Love is also remarkably different from abuse and the two can’t exist at the same time. Love is about communion, care, attention, and choice; rather than something perfect that may fall upon you. Truly a healing read.

 

This book is a GEM!!! If I were to highlight pages or write notes, I’d be highlighting and rewriting the entire book. There were so many a-ha moments for me. I picked this book up at a time when I needed it most.

 

This is a book every young woman needs to read, I see myself rereading it in years to come. bell hooks address all of the heart issues and pains I’ve felt throughout the years and it’s written so logically. She doesn’t draw on emotions, but on logic and growth, she rationalizes the emotions and circumstances many of us feel but can’t manage. Through the use of her own experiences, as well as the texts of other authors she has created something that is truly amazing and healing