Snake Hips: Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love

by Anne Thomas Soffee

Book Overview

This hilariously uplifting memoir follows an Arab-American woman's merry life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. In the tradition of Bridget Jones's Diary but true, this uniquely American story is filled with colorful characters such as Rosie, the corn-rowed truck-driving belly dancer; Fahed, cologne-doused rich loser; Too-Tall Mary, a member of an amateur...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556524587
• ISBN13: 9781556524585
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Ironic, Intelligent, and Uplifting

This is not just a book about belly-dancing. It is the ironic, intelligently-written, and uplifting anthem of a woman scorned trying to put her life back together by reimagining herself and investing her quite considerable energies into bellydance. It is memoir-turned-chick-lit with all the requisite plotpoints. The crushing breakup. The sleepless, obsessive nights on the internet. The nightmare first dates. The happy ending. The author-turned-heroine is lovable in her honesty about her flaws and insecurity and readers will cheer her to the very end. This isn't a book geared to belly-dancers, though dancers will probably enjoy the world they see within. It is geared towards the every-woman that has come out of a relationship heartbroken and uncertain. If you do nothing else, read the exerpt provided above. Soffee's voice and charm and wit will do the rest. Highly recommended!

ROFLMAO - This book is great!

This book is terrific! I'm almost done and it kept me up till 5am..AGAIN. I've been a dumbek player in a troupe who has been playing about 10 years, and an on and off beginning dancer occasionally, so I have been into the dance scene for a while. So many of the stories in the book sound like they could have happened up here. I knew JUST what she meant. The divas, the cliques, LOL. I've been to those dance shows, I've been at those gigs (or well, not quite as bad as that restaurant LOL but..). Its just hysterical. I'm so glad nearly everyone has given it 5 stars. One thing I really enjoyed was hearing more about all these familiar names. I'm hearing names of people that i've heard of before, seen before (Morocco) talked to in email when ordering stuff(Lucy), or even know somewhat(Anthea). It really shows what a small world this is. Not every day do you read about people you know in a book! I bought this book because of the bellydance, but also really enjoyed the whole single 30s woman relating and coping and trying to find true love part. There seem to be a number of books on that line lately, and I tried to read a few of the more popular ones. A couple were just so silly and unrealistic, I couldn't relate, and quickly ended up flung against the wall to land in the bad bad book heap. Anne's on the other hand is very intelligently written. She's not talking down to us. She's someone I could see hanging out with. She's real. Though I haven't had quite the adventurous heavy metal tatoo past that she has had, I could still totally relate. Its a very down to earth book in that way. So..5 stars!Anne if you read these come to Michigan and do a book tour please! There are lots of dancers here, and plenty of arabic culture too. Arabic night clubs and a whole stores with just arabic music.

To live! To laugh! To shimmy!

Despite the fact that Ms. Soffee and I are probably opposite ends of the conservative range, and that I would no more get a tattoo, then I would bungee jump off of Mt. McKinley, I really could relate to her. I guess when it comes down to getting dumped, learning to love yourself and finding your own identity, we're all the same, regardless. The background of belly dance was an added bonus, since I have always had a fascination with its beauty and mystery. The real appeal of the whole book, though, is Anne's sense of Far Side type humor. To look at life and see what is humorously skewed is a rare gift, and Anne has it in spades. I'll keep this one for my own library.

Don't Give Up......DANCE!

Ms. Soffee's tale is about too much more than fits on the front cover--it's about family and recovery, about time and maturity, about finding a voice and using it. Bridget Shcmidget--this ain't that at all! (and if you think it is you got another think coming) I like this book a lot. It is on my bookshelf and there it will stay.What really shines through this book is the presence of culture--whether the trash hip culture of the tattoo artist and his 'too hip' friends or the lebanese culture of her family or the belly dance culture--all handled with affection and verismo.My only problem here is that I gave away my copy and the bookstore is all out. Now where could I order one.....? (my bookshelf is complaining about the empty space)

Truely a book to make you laugh!

I have been Belly Dancing for 5 years and know people excactly like Ms. Soffee describes. I haven't laughed so hard reading a book in a very long time. I was so enthralled with this book that I am going to sell it at the North Texas Middlle Eastern Dance Association's annual dinner show event! Even if you don't Belly Dance you will appreciate the sarcasm of Ms. Soffee and the events in the book.