Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK; Buy For Friends, Male & Female
Review: "All About Love" reminds me of the Earth, Wind & Fire song, Reasons. Life is all about Love. Many of my 30 something male & female friends appear to live a life pursuing love, but always fall short of obtaining it. Bell writes truthfully of how capitalism, patriarchy, consumerism and greed have ensured a loveless society. She also accuses the mass media, run by men, of creating a culture of insecure people and an intense desire for instant gratification. These words sum up the state of human relationships as I have witnessed: "When greedy consumption is the order of the day, dehumanization becomes acceptable." Like trading in a car, if people feel their needs aren't getting met by their partner/spouse, they get rid of the person. As it turns out, people are not objects. The sorrowful consequences are reflected in those who remain cynical, and yet long for the love we were all born to experience.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: All About Love is an important and moving work by a brilliant writer. I first heard about this book when I heard an interview with bell hooks - a few days later, I bought the book, and I read it rather quickly. hooks has so many important things to say - she addresses the importance of honesty, the need for a "love ethic," and, above all else, the necessity of beleiving in and searching for "true love." Some people seem to object to the fact that hooks uses her personal life as a way to explore love, but I really don't understand why that's a problem. What would you rather she do - use statistics and sociological data? Maybe then her analysis would be more objective, but the fact is, love is, by its very nature, entirely subjective, so I much prefer hooks's personal approach.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: bell hooks always brings a thought provoking slant to any topic she writes about and this is no different. She brought to light some very poignant points worth exploring in more detail. Most notably in my mind is the way we love. Rather than consciously loving, most people go about it in the same way they have seen others do it repeating old patterns that bring results we hadn't bargained for.
Rating:
Summary: Buy 2, Read , and give one to a friend. Excellent Book!
Review: bell hooks has written an intelligent and heartfelt treatise on love. The ideas are Brilliant, Creative and New. The book is well written and truly a pleasure to read. Not a "self-help" book, it approaches the subject of love from a scholarly perspective, without losing the emotion needed to delve into the subject thoroughly. If you are in love, or want to be, or hate the very thought of loving anyone, then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Buy 2, Read , and give one to a friend. Excellent Book!
Review: bell hooks has written an intelligent and heartfelt treatise on love. The ideas are Brilliant, Creative and New. The book is well written and truly a pleasure to read. Not a "self-help" book, it approaches the subject of love from a scholarly perspective, without losing the emotion needed to delve into the subject thoroughly. If you are in love, or want to be, or hate the very thought of loving anyone, then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful, intriguing, and truly enjoyable book
Review: bell hooks is one of the most gifted intellectuals of our time and this book is one of her best books. Before reading this book, I was only familiar with bell hooks in the context of her role as a social critic and scholar in terms of her writings on issues such as race, gender, and class; but what this book does is allow people to think critically about a subject so thought provoking but commonly explored and discussed within the commercial confines of popular culture. This book allows the reader to transcend thinking of love in terms of romantic love and love for our families, but also envision love as an emotion of compassion and a foundation for ethics and social change in terms of love for self, humanity, and the environment.
Rating:
Summary: Go to the source
Review: bell hooks' beautiful writing adds passion to her excellent synthesis of others' work. If her accessibility can help to reach those for whom loving behavior has been modeled inadequately, that's a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Not academic but good
Review: I always expect strongly academic, political work from hooks, and while I was slightly disappointed that this was more narrative, subjective and personal, in the end I loved it. All About Love does in fact have a message which has profound implications both personally and politically, namedly that we live in a loveless culture which is not conducive to our personal, political, spirtitual and collective growth. Once I let go of my stylistic expectations, I really enjoyed and felt enriched by the book. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Hits the mark
Review: I came to this book with a very open mind and heart, willing to allow hooks (as usual) to show me and enlighten me to something that I didn't know about myself through her very personal and passionate writing. I appreciated her perspective on love and loss, and I would recommend this book to those who are grappling with finding ways to deal with both in this generally loveless society. For the reviewer who stated that hooks is a typically, leftist, man-hating "feminist", I'd suggest that she or he and others read--and reread--Feminist Theory, from Margin to Center (published 2000). This woman's bravery, conviction and all-encompassing love gives me hope that we shall, and can, overcome in this (to use her term) White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy with new vision and the willingness to change the framework of Western society--not simply working to get along or ahead within it.
Rating:
Summary: All about love/not really!
Review: I finished this book about two weeks ago and found it a wonderful,thought provoking read on a subject that I am inquiring into.I came away with as many questions as I had answered,which is good,that makes it worth the read.bell hooks,however,is not an expert on love,other than her own experience of it.So this is not really all about love,it all about what bell hooks has to say about it.In this regard she is a much a fellow traveler as she is a guide.If you can read bell as a pleasant companion on your own journey,this becomes a very useful volume.
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