Last night I was looking at my bookshelf, trying to decide what to read next, when I suddenly felt an embarrassingly profound connection to the T-shirt slogan "so many books, so little time!" Sort of like how AA people will tell you how dumb phrases like "let go and let God" saved their lives? So many fucking books. Here's what's at the top of my reading list for the next month or so:

A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven—I'm halfway through this one, and it's really, really good so far. About a bumbling college professor who finds himself responsible for his brother's two children, it's funnier than her past work, and somehow less bleak, even though it opens with a woman being beaten to death with a lamp.

Zadie Smith, N.W.—Smith's fourth novel, and her first novel since 2005's On Beauty.

Hope Larson, A Wrinkle in Time—I've had my eye on this one for a while: Graphic novelist Hope Larson, probably best known for her dreamy graphic novel Gray Horses, adapts Madeline L'Engle's classic novel.

J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy—I sort of feel like I've gotten all I need from J.K. Rowling, but curiosity will lead me to this one eventually.

Gregory Martin, Stories for Boys—From great local publisher Hawthorne Books, a memoir about a man whose father comes out as gay late in life. Not a description I'd ordinarily be hugely interested in, but Hawthorne has a very reliable editorial eye.

Sherman Alexie, Blasphemy—A 30-story collection from the incomparable Seattle author, Blasphemy is half old stories and half new stuff. Powell's is hosting Alexie at the Bagdad later this month—10/24.

Emma Donoghue, Astray—I thought Donoghue's last novel, Room, sounded gimmicky (it's about a woman who's kidnapped and kept in a storage shed, where she raises a young son to believe the shed is the entire world) and then I stayed up until 3 am finishing it. Can't wait to read her new collection—Atlantic recently published a great little story from it.

Dan DeWeese, Disorder—I enjoyed local author Dan DeWeese's first novel, You Don't Love This Man; he's publishing his new collection through his own press, the local Propellor Books.

Anybody else particularly excited about any upcoming titles?