For your reading pleasure, some literary links from The Baltimore Sun:

Television critic David Zurawik has developed a love/hate relationship with Kate Gosselin, the reality-TV headliner of Jon & Kate Plus Eight and who is hawking a new book, Eight Little Faces. He hates her kvetching but loves the passion she inspires among fans and critics. He's even gone so far as to ask: Has she replaced the June Cleaver/Donna Reed personna to become TV's new model of motherhood?  

In today's Sun, you can get Michael Pollan’s advice on healthful eating: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Pollan, whose books include The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, An Eater’s Manifesto, will give a reading at the Pratt on Saturday. He says of his pithy advice: "The deeper I delved into the whole field of nutrition science and the whole issue of what you should eat, the simpler it got. ... those seven words say it all. That was a little alarming to my publisher because she was expecting 50- or 60,000 words."

Columnist Susan Reimer chatted with Debbie Phelps, the mother of Olympic swimming hero Michael Phelps and author of the memoir A Mother for All Seasons. Ms. Phelps says a child requires a special kind of parenting when he is in his 20s. "A parent is never done. There are parents who think once a child hits 18, they are done. You learn pretty quickly that their roots might not be as deep as you think."

Photo by Karen Alquist, TLC