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*Just so you know, there *will* be another Stephen King release, but it won't be this summer. You'll have to wait until September.

*One of my favorite pulpy novelists, Laura Lippman, *does* have a beach read coming out this summer. Laura Lippman's work: highly recommended. Smart, contrarian, interested both in weird tiny details of daily life and in gothic, strange plots.

Lippman sometimes takes inspiration from real-life crime stories--and, oddly, a case that inspired Lippman's "What the Dead Know" has just been solved, or semi-solved. Famously, long ago, little sisters were abducted from a mall and never seen again. If you pick up the recent non-fiction book "The Last Stone," you'll at last learn, or sort-of-learn, what happened to those sisters.

*"Younger" returns. I wonder if "Younger" may be straying close to wearing-out-its-welcome territory. I say that only because, in Season Five, the clever permutations started to feel a bit calculated. Still-clever, but calculated. But maybe I'm saying that only because I watched all five seasons in a row; I never had "time away" from the series.

I do look forward to a record of Sutton Foster's dancing skills--a record which, apparently, will be furnished (at last) by Season Six.

*Obviously, we have all been waiting to see Oscar-nominee Vera Farmiga menaced by Godzilla (or by one of Godzilla's enemies)--and we'll finally get that chance in a few weeks.

*Chris Rock in "Fargo," Season Four. I'm generally a fan of counter-intuitive casting. It seems to me great comedy stars are often as gifted as -- if not more gifted than -- the tragedians. (Comedy is hard.) But because of a corporate lack of imagination....we often don't get to see funny people in serious roles.

("Damages"--which made great use of Lily Tomlin and Ted Danson--was a show with a smart set of casting directors.)

In any case, I'm excited to see what Chris Rock does with a serious role--and also to see the brilliant Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Holmes in a separate series.

Can't wait!
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