Since we’re talking about books, here’s my favorite right now…

Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes is Jonathan Shaw’s first leap into the world of shock literature. Based on a true story and set in the hot urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro, Shaw’s tale follows the twisted love affair between a middle-aged gypsy and the beautifully manipulative and insane young prostitute, Narcisa, with hilarious, poignant and often tragic detail. Recounted in three years of diary entries, Shaw’s character navigates the teeming slums and lice-infested flop houses of Rio and stumbles along a secret passage to enlightenment at the hands of a gyrating Buddhist Dakini. Through this dark, hilarious litany of doomed love, drug addiction, compulsive sex and mutual enslavement, Shaw proves that it is possible to follow your heart and never once be degraded by self pity.

Great summer book for laying on the beach, your bed or someone else’s. Check out Shaw’s website: http://www.scabvendor.com/

—noir_profund