All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks (pseudonym of Gloria Jean Watkins) was the March book from the feminist book club on Goodreads called
Our Shared Shelf started by Emma Watson. The title is exactly what this book is about i.e. the study of love in a new light. Each chapter is about a different aspect of love like romantic, community, spiritual, etc. She's definitely a liberal feminist (which makes sense with the book club) so her insight is skewed in that direction (if that is an issue for you). There is a religious bent to this book so if that's not your cup of tea... Sociology, yes...at least I thought so until now. I don't know if it was the subject matter or the writing style but I found this book to be a bit of a bore and a chore. There were certain moments where I was like "ah yes this is good" but they were far outweighed by the feeling of "how many more pages til the end?" unfortunately.
Thoughts I had while reading this book:
- This could have been an article or an essay.
- I would have preferred this to have been approached in a more scientific (specifically hard sciences) way.
- A lot of this is common sense.
In conclusion, I wasn't a huge fan of this. I didn't hate it but I don't think I'll be seeking this author out for any more of her books in the future. You win some, you lose some. *shrugs*
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| Source: science-all.com |
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Had to read some bell hooks in college. I remember being distinctly unimpressed, at least on an academic level. One of her essays was about the importance of Josephine Baker in French Cinema, and part of that importance was (I kid you not) that she "brought the ass in film."
ReplyDeleteThat is, Ms. Baker danced in an energetic fashion with much swinging of the hips, and Ms. hooks found this to be a matter worthy of an essay. Even at that tender age I thought this was specious nonsense: had a white male academic posited the importance of an African-American actress as being based on her backside, he would have (rightfully) been hounded out of the profession.
Ever since then, I've avoided Ms. hooks' work.
One of my girlfriends really likes her work and I get why it has an appeal but I think it is aimed at a certain type of audience (cerebral-spiritual) which I do not fall into. That isn't to deprecate those that do fall into that category but I think that best explains why this type of writing style doesn't do it for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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