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kmshobbs's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
bell hooks is a visionary in the “love ethic” and applying it through the gaze of our spiritual, religious, and relational practices. Such a great read.
noooootalie's review
dnf @ 22%
I'd seen snippets of some really profound things this book shared, but on an overall scheme I found it hard to get through. I was frequently skipping pages because of how boring or negatively charged many sections were. eventually I decided it wasn't worth my time since I wasn't enjoying a majority of the read.
I still plan to give Communion a try, but I'm rather disappointed with this one.
I'd seen snippets of some really profound things this book shared, but on an overall scheme I found it hard to get through. I was frequently skipping pages because of how boring or negatively charged many sections were. eventually I decided it wasn't worth my time since I wasn't enjoying a majority of the read.
I still plan to give Communion a try, but I'm rather disappointed with this one.
iamcarlib's review against another edition
Too academic for me at the moment. I need something lighter while my life is so heavy. I think it is valuable community work to read this book so I would like to return at some point.
a_eterno's review
emotional
hopeful
3.75
the spiritual aspect was a bit grating at times but hooks does an interesting job of tying materialism, patriarchy and fear to loveless ness. i do think her writing is a great intro to feminist lit.
kivt's review against another edition
4.0
This was an incredibly useful and important book for me to read in the last couple months before my wedding. I found it when I searched for feminist wedding readings. I ended up stringing together bits and pieces of chapter 10 into exactly what we wanted to say and be reminded of during our ceremony.
As others have noted, some of the highlights include hooks' clear and precise definition of love, her frank discussion of patriarchy and how it interacts with love, and her explanation of how abuse and love can't coexist. This is a book about all kinds of love, including creating loving workplaces, which I appreciated. It's hard to talk about a lot of the insights of the book. I'm still processing them.
As for the cons, I couldn't find one passage from chapter 10 to use for my wedding because of how much hooks quotes. A lot of hooks' excellent observations are sandwiched between extensive quotes from self-help and new age authors whose insights I did not find nearly as compelling as hooks evidently did. This was definitely a problem throughout the book. I appreciate that hooks engaged deeply with the genre in which she was writing, and really did write a genuinely good self-help book, but I just didn't find the external material that useful.
Lots of reviewers have pointed out some of the weaknesses of the book: heavy emphasis on religion, some very strange generational generalizations and/or romanticizing of the past, and while the book isn't hostile to LGBT people, it sure isn't written with us in mind. It's still worth reading the whole book and just skimming over the parts that don't speak to you. Even the good chapters have bad passages and the bad chapters have a couple good ones.
If you're looking for a cheat sheet, I liked the introduction, chapters 1-4, and chapters 8-11. The spirituality, love ethic, and greed chapters were not compelling to me, and the healing and destiny chapters were all about Jesus. Healing focused on the story of Jacob, which I always found nonsensical and still do even after hooks analyzes it.
As others have noted, some of the highlights include hooks' clear and precise definition of love, her frank discussion of patriarchy and how it interacts with love, and her explanation of how abuse and love can't coexist. This is a book about all kinds of love, including creating loving workplaces, which I appreciated. It's hard to talk about a lot of the insights of the book. I'm still processing them.
As for the cons, I couldn't find one passage from chapter 10 to use for my wedding because of how much hooks quotes. A lot of hooks' excellent observations are sandwiched between extensive quotes from self-help and new age authors whose insights I did not find nearly as compelling as hooks evidently did. This was definitely a problem throughout the book. I appreciate that hooks engaged deeply with the genre in which she was writing, and really did write a genuinely good self-help book, but I just didn't find the external material that useful.
Lots of reviewers have pointed out some of the weaknesses of the book: heavy emphasis on religion, some very strange generational generalizations and/or romanticizing of the past, and while the book isn't hostile to LGBT people, it sure isn't written with us in mind. It's still worth reading the whole book and just skimming over the parts that don't speak to you. Even the good chapters have bad passages and the bad chapters have a couple good ones.
If you're looking for a cheat sheet, I liked the introduction, chapters 1-4, and chapters 8-11. The spirituality, love ethic, and greed chapters were not compelling to me, and the healing and destiny chapters were all about Jesus. Healing focused on the story of Jacob, which I always found nonsensical and still do even after hooks analyzes it.
therevallison's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
4.0
This is a beautiful book on love. A book on love that's also about death and childhood and violence. And about life and growing up and connection and healing.
It's both heartening and disheartening that although this book is 25 years old, still speaks radically toward our culture. We are in need of love. And. There are places where you can see her visions of love taking root.
It's both heartening and disheartening that although this book is 25 years old, still speaks radically toward our culture. We are in need of love. And. There are places where you can see her visions of love taking root.