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sunday/21

Of love and lit. Naomi Seidman will discuss her new book — and explain its title, “The Marriage Plot: Or How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature” — at an upcoming talk. The book looks at the evolution of Jewish love in the 19th and 20th centuries and its impact on media and culture. Seidman is a professor of Jewish culture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

5:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21 at Congregation Netivot Shalom, 1316 University Ave., Berkeley. Free. www.netivotshalom.org

sunday/28

“Stumbling Stone.” Authors Rudi Raab and Julie Freestone talk about the stories behind their novel, based on a family’s Holocaust experiences and a German who refused to go along with the Nazis. Event includes two musicians performing a composition by composer Hans Gál, who fled the Nazis. At Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 4 p.m. Free. www.stumbling-stone.com