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Crosscurrents

Written on the Dock of the Bay: Saturday, November 19

If your kid comes up to you on Thanksgiving and asks you, "What should I be thankful for? I can't think of anything!" you should say to that child, "Boy (or girl), do I have the book for you!" (especially if you are a character in a commercial). In the bookI See Kindness Everywhere, by Lafayette mom Shelley Frost, a little girl says, "When I put on my socks, I see the kindness of people who cut and sewed the material. Thank you, sock makers!" I don't want to ruin the ending, but there's a spiderweb. Hint: Webs of kindness. (Whoops.)

You can usually tell if someone reads a lot of books based on the way they look. Right? Right. Or by the way they smell. Sometimes men sniff me, and then say, “You’ve been to the library, haven’t you?” But the secret is: no, I haven’t. There’s just a perfume that smells like a library, like dusty old, books. No joke.Check this out.

Saturday, November 19

Author reading // Free. Moroccan. Food. Okay, maybe it’s more like “some food and drink samples” than an entire Thanksgiving; but food is food. And you can get some eats by coming to the release of the cookbookMourad: New Moroccan by head chef atAziza, Mourad Lahlou. It should be “good stuff” defined, considering that Aziza has been ranked by San Francisco Chronicle “by far the best Moroccan restaurant.” Reportedly, Lahlou takes Moroccan classics, like bisteeya , couscous, and preserved lemons, to whole new places – places preserved lemons have never been to before. // DETAILS: Saturday, November 19, 1pm.Green Apple Books. 506 Clement Street, San Francisco

Sunday, November 20

Reading series // At the Previously Secret Information storytelling series, you’ll laugh, then cry, then produce a hybridaugh-cry, then sob and chuckle, then get out your thesaurus for other ways to say “laugh” and “cry”, then cry again. Basically, the stories you’ll hear will be so sad that they’re funny. (Basically) all comedians are (basically) depressed … right? Hear Paul Myers tell “Ringo, Django, and My Dad.” Rachel McDowell frightens with “Panic in ParanormalPlacerville.” Rachel Swan confesses “I’m a Closet Heterosexual.” Series co-producer Joe Klocek delivers “To Love and Lose in L.A.” // DETAILS: Sunday, November 20, 7pm.Stage Werx Theatre. 533 Sutter, San Francisco

Monday, November 21

Author reading // Oh! Emily Dickinson. Good to see you. Eleanor Roosevelt? What are you doing here, in my vision? Abe! Elvis! I had no idea you two were friends. In Annie Leibovitz’s book of photographs,Pilgrimage, you can move through time and see the whole gang, the gang otherwise known as the gang of important people in history, as well as other parts of America, through a universe created by photographs // DETAILS: Monday, November 21, 7pm.Diesel Bookstore. 5433 College Ave, Oakland

Tuesday, November 22

Author reading // Remember Jonestown? Where more than 900 members of the People’s Temple of Jonestown committed suicide drinking, or injecting with, a cyanide-laced fruit drink? Laura Johnston Kohl remembers. She says, “Survivors were talked about as brainless, and sheep led to the slaughter. I want people to know that those of us who made the commitment, made the commitment because we wanted the world different – we wanted it better.” To make that point clear, she wroteJonestown Survivor. // DETAILS: Tuesday, November 22, 7pm.Books Inc. Opera Plaza. 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

Book reading // In the 1960s, scientists were experimenting to find a way to combine the best works of Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. They couldn’t figure OUT how to do it. So they went home, took a nap, woke up in 2011, and, suddenly, one of the scientists knew: they could print out all these stories and staple them together. And they’ve done it inFour Novels of the 1960s. Philip K. Dick might not be able to attend the reading for this book at Moe’s, but little Philip K. Dicks (meaning his children) will be there to read the work of their father. // DETAILS: Tuesday, November 22, 7:30pm.Moe’s Books.  2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley

Crosscurrents