If she had stopped after the first two chapters, I probably would have recommended it as a worthwhile essay to read. Her words resonate deep within the soul, urging us to explore the true essence of love and its transformative power.

All About Romance About : All About Romance

When anonymous postcards from ‘Big Red’ start showing up in Roman’s locker and shortly afterwards entire walls of brightly coloured graffiti appear around the school signed by the same person, Roman is intrigued. Not only that but even I at 27 felt a lot of the references were too dated for a YA reader to understand. love is comprised of, but not equal to: commitment, affection, recognition, respect, trust, communication. The Holiday Ever After Box, sent to me by the wonderful Jeannie Lin, has helped make this December a big more festive. You don't realize until you read this how we treat love like a silly subject as a culture, how we kind of giggle at it and reduce its significance.This book was published in 2000 but the references to popular culture or politics are much more related to the 1990s.

All About Love: New Visions: 1 (Love Song to the Nation, 1) All About Love: New Visions: 1 (Love Song to the Nation, 1)

This is the first time I'm reading a book from this author and I genuinely really enjoyed it and will definitely read more of Tawse's work! As much as I like bell hooks, (and I love watching her talks and interviews, I just can't get enough of those) I simply get bored of her writing. Roman grows exponentially on the book and the reader sees some shifting of their perspective in acknowledgement that friends can still be friends where there is disagreement or points of difference. I share this because it is far too easy to stay stuck in simply describing, telling one’s story over and over again, which can be a way of holding on to grief about the past or holding onto a narrative that places blame on others”. However, watch out for the wacky Benny Hill-esque tracks which play during the fun or comedic scenes.The self-help tone and my-brother-in-Christ sort of religious anecdotes certainly didn't help either. To me, it's just so much more complex than that, and I don't think there's any one person who holds the absolute truth about it. Supporting characters like Roman's mum and best friends are there to try and help them have a bit of perspective, and also to provide support to Roman, showing that despite difficulties at school, there's still people around them who love them for who they are. I want representation without being constantly irritated, and I want other people to learn about my experiences without getting the impression that all young trans people are as annoying and immature as this. As an adult, it makes me hope that queer teenagers do get to have the freedom to make mistakes and be themselves and grow, even though I'm not really the age of the target audience of the book itself.

All About Love by bell hooks | Waterstones All About Love by bell hooks | Waterstones

But being a non-binary teenager in a small northern town means their dating pool is limited and they haven't had their own sweeping romance . There's some sort of misguided musing on how rapper Lil Kim could be preoccupied with money and not love. Women are often belittled for trying to resurrect these men and bring them back to life and to love.

The main narrative, about the mysterious wall art and postcards, is pretty predictable (it's easy to work out almost instantly who it is) and fairly similar to Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, so will appeal to people who like that romcom kind of plotline where you know that the protagonist is misunderstanding something, but don't yet know the full story. One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others. To be loving we must willingly hear each other's truth, and most importantly, we affirm the value of truth telling. hooks' ethics of love touches upon subjects like gender-specific child-rearing and violence against children, love as action, toxic masculinity and self-care, and I suppose at least the two latter concepts haven't been a thing in the year 2000.