All About Love

hooks opens by noting that we have no agreed-upon definition of love — we use the word for everything from infatuation to obligation to possession — and that this vagueness is not accidental. She argues that love is a practice, not a feeling: a set of actions including care, commitment, trust, knowledge, responsibility, and respect. The book moves through love in families, in community, in politics, in spiritual life. The most important book on this shelf for parents who want to understand what they are actually trying to do — not manage their child's behavior but practice love with them. The foundation beneath everything else here.