love: the will to extend oneself to nurture our or another's spiritual growth. often confused for love as in 'I can't leave her. cathexis: the process of investment in a person wherein the other becomes important to us. love is comprised of, but not equal to: commitment, affection, recognition, respect, trust, communication.

it is much easier in our world to discuss the loss of love than the presence or, particularly, the search for love. Here are my notes from this extraordinary book:

What happens if you are neither from Mars NOR Venus? I agree, for example, that men are shamed out of revealing their needs and wants for love more than women are, but there is nary a mention of genderqueer identities. To give two brief criticisms, because it wasn't actually perfect, and that's important: it's pretty god-heavy. WOO BUDDY there was a lesson I haven't been ready to hear until right now, but wow am I hearing it now. Telling the truth in order to pave the way for unadorned, loving interaction. What got to me in 'All About Love' was honesty.

hooks is in the business of life-changing, really, whether she's teaching us how to love in the face of a planet of lovelessness, or teaching us to find, confront, and exorcise the racism and sexism by which we invariably live. It came to me at just the right second (by which I mean, I took it from the house where I was house-sitting at just the right second), and I have taken it straight to heart. Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.įor readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives.

All about love bell hooks amazon