Monica is a dancer, drummer, and overthinker based in San Francisco, California
Monica is a dancer, drummer, and overthinker based in San Francisco, California
Because I'm a nerd, and because I love books, and because I like to talk about books with other people, which means they need to know about them and read/listen to them, too. This is a fraction of what I've read , focused on titles related to the work I share at this site. I'll add to it as I can.
All the pix are of my bookshelves.
First published March 2024.
Last updated July 2026.
I encourage you to use your public library whenever possible. Most US libraries also have a service called Link+ . If they don't have a title in their collections, they can get it for you from another library.
Clearly I do have a large personal library as well. Thank goodness for used bookstores and independent bookshops and rent control.
And yeah, my to read pile is vast and varied...so many books, so little time. I also am an avid fiction reader!
If a title is listed here it doesn't mean I loved it or endorse it fully, but it does mean it has value and made me think differently or contributed to my larger understanding.
Note: I used to have this list broken down into categories - SWANA Dances; SWANA Context; Southern Italian Dances,; Bodies in the World, Ecology, & Other Dance Forms; Music; Italian America; Sicily & Italy; Black Madonnas, Popular Catholicism & Saints; Education & Teaching. Too many things crossed over, and I decided to make it alphabetical.
Abu-Lughod, Leila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. 1999, Univ of California Press.
Al-Rawi, Rosina Fawzia. Grandmother’s Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing. 2022, Interlink Publishing.
Al-Zayyat, Latifa. The Open Door. 2000, American University in Cairo Press.
Alareer, Refaat. Gaza Writes Back. 2013, Just World Publishing.
Alio, Jacqueline.Women of Sicily: Saints, Queens, and Rebels. 2015 Trinacria.
Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. 1986, University of Minnesota Press.
AlZayer, Penni. Middle Eastern Dance. 2004, Chelsea House.
Angiuli, Emanuela. A Sud: Il racconto del lungo silenzio. 2015, Squilibri.
Aradoon, Zariga. The Belly Dance Costume Book: All of the Lore, Lure, and Merriment of Making a Costume. 1978.
Atiya, Nayra. Khul-Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories. 1982, Syracuse University Press.
Balestrini, Nanni. We want everything: A Novel. 2022, Verso Books.
Belloni, Alessandra. Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna. 2019, Simon and Schuster.
Bey, Hakim., Naji, L., , & Massoudy, H. Overcoming Tourism. 1994.
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion, and Politics in Italy. 2000, iUniverse.
Boddy, Janice. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan. 1989, University of Wisconsin Press.
Bonaffini, Luigi, & Perricone, Joseph. Poets of the Italian Diaspora: A Bilingual Anthology. 2014, Fordham University Press.
Bond, Mary. The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World. 2007, Healing Arts Press.
Briante, Susan. Defacing the Monument. 2020, Noemi Press.
Brown, Adrienne Marie. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. 2017, AK Press.
Cannistraro, Phillip. V., & Meyer, Gerald. The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture. 2003, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Carlton, Donna. Looking for Little Egypt. 1994, International Dance Discovery.
Carroll, Michael. Madonnas That Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy Since the Fifteenth Century. 1992, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chiriatti, Luigi. Morso d’amore: viaggio nel tarantismo salentino. 2011.
Cleveland, Chrsitena. God is a Black Woman. 2022, HarperCollins.
Conte, Tullia. L’ altra Taranta: Annabella Rossi e il Tarantismo Nel Cilento. 2019
Conte, Tullia. Diacronia minima del tarantismo. 2020
Crawford, Sheri Mignano. Mandolins, Like Salami. 2005, Zighi Baci Publishing.
Crescimanno, Barbara. Il sacro al femminile. Figure e forme rituali in area mediterranea fra memoria e contemporaneità. 2021.
Croutier, Alev Lytle. Harem: The World Behind the Veil. 1989, Abbeville Press.
Daboo, Jeri. Ritual, rapture and remorse: A Study of Tarantism and Pizzica in Salento. 2010, Peter Lang.
Darwish, Mustafa. Dream Makers on the Nile: A Portrait of Egyptian Cinema. 1998, Columbia University Press.
Darwish, Mustafa. .سنوات الذهبية في السينما المصرية: سينما كايرو، ١٩٣٦-١٩٦٧, American University in Cairo Press, 2008.
De Grazia, Victoria. How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945. 1992, University of California Press.
De Martino, Ernesto. The land of remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism. Free Association Books.
De Martino, Ernesto. Magic: A Theory from the South. Hau.
De Simone, Roberto. Son Sei Sorelle: Rituali e canti della tradizione in Campana. 2010, Squilibri.
Di Donato, Pietro. Christ in Concrete. 1939, 1993, Signet Classics.
Di Prima, Diane. Recollections of my life as a woman: The New York Years : A Memoir. 2001, Penguin.
DiPrima, Diane. Revolutionary Letters.
Di Virgilio, Domenico Musiche tradizionali in Abruzzo: le registrazioni di Diego Carpitella in provincia di Chieti (1970). 2010.
DiStasi, Lawrence. Una storia segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II. 2001, Heyday.
DviJKA. Queer Ukraine: An Anthology of LGBTQI+ Ukrainian Voices During Wartime. 2023, Renard Press Ltd.
Early, Evelyn. Baladi Women of Cairo: Playing with an Egg and a Stone. 1993, Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Eco, Umberto. How to Spot a Fascist. 2020, Random House.
Farraj, Johnny, & Shumays, Sami Abu. Inside Arabic music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century Middle East. 2019, Oxford University Press.
Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. 2004, Autonomedia.
Federici, Silvia. Beyond the Periphery of the Skin: Rethinking, Remaking, and Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism. 2020, PM Press.
Flee Collective. Tarantismo: Odyssey of an Italian Ritual. 2019 (vinyl and book).
Forner, Michelle. The Transmission of Oriental Dance in the United States: From Raqs Sharqi to "Belly Dance". 1993, Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
Franken, Marjorie. Daughter of Egypt: Farida Fahmy and the Reda Troupe. 2001
Franklin, Eric. Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance. 1996, Human Kinetics.
Franklin, Eric. Conditioning for Dance. 2019, Human Kinetics.
Fraser, Kathleen. Before They Were Belly Dancers: European Accounts of Female Entertainers in Egypt, 1760-1870. 2014, McFarland.
Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1993, Burns & Oates.
Galland, China. Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna. 1991, Penguin.
Giunta, Edvige., & Sciorra, Joseph. Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women’s Domestic Needlework from the Italian Diaspora. 2014, University Press of Mississippi.
Giunta, Edvige, & Trasciatti, Mary Ann. Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. 2022, New Village Press.
Gluck, Louise. Averno. 2006, Fararar, Straus and Giroux.
Gramsci, Antonio. The Southern Question. 2005, Guernica Editions.
Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks. 2011, Columbia University Press.
Guglielmo, Jennifer. Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945. 2010, University of North Carolina Press.
Guglielmo, Jennifer & Salerno, Salvatore. Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America. 2012, Routledge.
Hadidi, Hagar el. Zar: Spirit Possession, Music, and Healing Rituals in Egypt. 2016, American University in Cairo Press.
Haraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: the Reinvention of Nature. 1990, Routledge.
Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. 2016, Duke University Press.
Harris, Lynette. The Belly Dance Reader. 2012.
Harris, Lynette. The Belly Dance Reader 2. 2014
Inserra, Incoronata. Global Tarantella: Reinventing Southern Italian Folk Music and Dances. 2017, University of Illinois Press.
Italian-American Political Solidarity Club. Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus. 2008.
Jarrar, Randa. Why I Can’t Stand White Belly Dancers. 2014, Salon.
Karayanni, Stavros Stavrou.Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance. 2019, Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Kendi, Ibrahim. X. How to be an Antiracist. 2019, One World.
Kent, Sarah. (ed.). 1st International Conference on Middle Eastern Dance: Forum Proceedings May 16—18, 1997. 1999.
Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance. 2020, Profile Books.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. The Covenant of Reciprocity. Ch. 26 in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology. 2017, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Laurino, Marie. Were you always an Italian?: Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America. 2001, W. W. Norton & Company.
Levi, Carlo. Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year. 2006, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,.
Lloyd, Susan Caperna. No Pictures in my Grave: A Spiritual Journey in Sicily. 1992, Mercury House.
Lüdtke, Karen. Dances with Spiders: Crisis, Celebrity and Celebration in Southern Italy. 2009, Berghahn Books.
Mabro, Judy. Veiled Half-Truths: Western Travellers’ Perceptions of Middle Eastern Women. 1991, I. B. Tauris.
Maggio, Theresa. The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily. Catapult. 2003, Catapult.
Magliocco, Sabina. The Two Madonnas: the Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community. 1993.
Magliocco, Sabina. Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic ambivalence in American Neopaganism. 2005.
Magliocco, Sabina. Witchcraft, Healing and Vernacular Magic in Italy. 2018, University Press eBooks.
Mahfouz, Naguib. The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street. 1990, Anchor.
Mahfouz, Naguib. Mirrors. American 1999, University in Cairo Press.
Malim, Fathi. Oasis Siwa: From the Inside. 2001, Al Katan.
Malpezzi, Frances, & Clements, William. Italian-American Folklore. 1992, August House.
Marcus, Scott. Music in Egypt. 2007, Oxford University Press.
McDonald, Caitlin & Sellers-Young, Barbara. Belly Dance Around the World: New Communities, Performance and Identity. 2013, McFarland.
Mendola, Louis & Alio, Jacqueline. The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy. 2014, Trinacria Editions.
Mernissi, Fatima. Dreams of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood. 1995, Basic Books.
Mernissi, Faima. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. 2001, Simon and Schuster.
Mingozzi, Gianfranco. La tarantata: Il primo documanto filmato sul tarantismo (con DVD). 2009, Kurumuny.
Moorehead, Caroline. A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism. 2019, Random House.
Morello, Stefano. Italian American Studies Open Syllabus | Manifold @CUNY. (2024, April 2). https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/italian-american-studies-open-syllabus
Nagrin, Daniel. The Six Questions: Acting Technique for Dance Performance. 1997, University of Pittsburgh Press.
Nelson, Cynthia. Doria Shafik Egyptian Feminist : A Woman Apart. 1996, American University in Cairo Press.
Nystrom, Justin. Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture. 2018, University of Georgia Press.
Orsi, Robert. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. 2010, Yale University Press.
Parmigiani, Giovanna. The Spider Dance: Tradition, Time, and Healing in Southern Italy. 2024, Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Plastino, Goffredo & Sciorra, Joseph. Neapolitan Postcards: The Canzone Napoletana as Transnational Subject. 2016, Rowman & Littlefield.
Plastino, Goffredo. Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds. 2013, Routledge.
Racy, A. J., & Racy, A. J. (2004). Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab. Cambridge University Press.
Raffo, Susan. Liberated to the Bone: Histories. Bodies. Futures. 2022, AK Press.
Redmond, Layne. When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm. 1997.
Rollo, Allesia (2026). Altera Italia. Miracoli Visivi.
Roushdy, Noha. أنوثة والرقص في مصر: تجسيد ومعنى الرقص البلدي. - Embodiment and Meaning in Raqs Baladi. 2013, Cairo Papers in Social Science.
Ruberto, Laura. (2010). Ma la vita è fatta così. 2010, Crossings.
Ruberto, Laura. & Sciorra, Joseph. New Italian migrations to the United States: Vol. 1: Politics and History since 1945. 2017, University of Illinois Press.
Ruberto, Laura. & Sciorra, Joseph. New Italian migrations to the United States: Vol. 2: Art and Culture since 1945. 2017, University of Illinois Press.
Russo, John Paul. Italian Passages: Making and Thinking History. 2010, Bordighera Press.
Saadawi, Nawal el. The Hidden face of Eve. 1980.
Saadawi, Nawal el. Woman at Point Zero. 1983, Zed Books.
Saadawi, Nawal el. Memoirs from the Women’s Prison. 1986. The Women's Press Ltd.
Saadawi, Nawal el. Memoirs of a Woman Doctor. 1989, City Lights Publishers.
Saadawi, Nawal el. My Travels Around the World. 1992, Minerva.
Saadawi, Nawal el. A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi. 1999, Zed Books.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. 1978, Vintage.
Salvi, M., & Caramia, G. La pizzica nascosta: l’organetto nella musica e nei canti tradizionali di Villa Castelli. 2008, Kurumuny.
Sawa, George. Egyptian Music Appreciation & Practice for Bellydancers. 2010.
Sciorra, Joseph. Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives. 2011, Fordham University Press.
Sciorra, Joseph. Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City. 2015, University of Tennessee Press.
Shaʻarawi, Huda. Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist (1879-1924). 1987, Feminist Press at CUNY.
Shannon, Jonathan. Among the Jasmine tTees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria. 2006, Wesleyan University Press.
Shay, Anthony & Sellers-Young, Barbara. Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy. 2025,
Simeti, Mary Taylor. On Persephone’s Island: A Sicilian Journal. 1995, Alfred A. Knopf.
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. View of Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg Intelligence and Rebellious Transformation. 2014.
Soueif, Ahdaf. In the Eye of the Sun. 2000, Anchor.
Steinman, Louise. The Knowing Body: Elements of Contemporary Performance & Dance. 1986, Shambhala Publications.
Stewart, Iris. Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality Through Movement and Ritual. 2000, Simon and Schuster.
Tacchi, Francesca. Let the Mountains Be My Grave. 2022, Neon Hemlock Press.
Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O. Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else). 2022, Haymarket Books.
Tamburri, Anthony Julian A Politics of (Self-)Omission. The Italian/american Challenge in a Post-George Floyd Age. 2022.
Tamburri, A. J., Giordano, P., Gardaphe, F. L., & Gardaphé, F. L. From the margin: Writings in Italian Americana. 1991, Purdue University Press.
Tàpies, F. A. Tamáss: Contemporary Arab Representations : [Cairo]. 2024, Witte de with Center for Contemporary Art.
Taveri, Sandra. Viaggio Nel Tarantismo - Journey Into Tarantism. 2026.
Thabit, Alia. Midnight at the Crossroads: Has Belly Dance Sold Its Soul? 2017, Dance Art Press.
Tobocman, Seth. Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians: For My Parents. 2003, Soft Skull.
Van Nieuwkerk, Karin. A Trade like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt. 2010, University of Texas Press.
Varga Dinicu, Carolina. You Asked Aunt Rocky: Answers & Advice About Raqs Sharqi & Raqs Shaabi. 2011, RDI Publications.
Veneziani, Marcello. C'era una volta in sud. 2025, Rizzoli. Vittorini, Elio. Conversations in Sicily. 2000, New Directions Publishing.
Ward, Heather. Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition: The Raqs Sharqi Revolution, 1890-1930. 2018, McFarland.
Watson, Helen. Women in the City of the Dead. 1992, Africa World Press.
Woods, J. The Dancing Cymbalist: How to Play Music with Finger Cymbals & Dance at the Same Time. 2007 Onya Music in Motion Arts.
Zuhur, Sherifa. Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East. 1998, American University in Cairo Press.
Zuhur, Sherifa. Colors of Enchantment: Theater, Dance, Music, and the Visual Arts of the Middle East. 2001, American University in Cairo Press.
I live and work on unceded Ohlone Ramaytush land. Respect to elders, ancestors, and traditional caretakers of this land—past, present, emerging, and future. I also acknowledge the people of the lands of my youth, the Matinecock and the Tongva.
Gratitude to the caretakers in my familial lines who stayed on the Southern European, Eastern European, and North African lands that my grandparents left. You created and continue to grow the traditions I do my best to honor and keep relevant from afar. Thank you for your ongoing inspiration and grace.
No generative AI was used in creating any content on this site.
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