United Through Reading presents the Storybook Ball at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine on Sunday, November 15. Guests will celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary by enjoying a sumptuous meal, fine wine, silent and live auctions, and music by Bunnell Strings. The organization’s founder, Betty Mohlenbrock, will be honored, as will Navy Lt. Florence Bacong Choe, a United Through Reading active duty coordinator who died in Afghanistan in March. Honorary chair is bestselling author James Patterson, who will provide a videotaped welcome. Because of United Through Reading, parents are reading aloud to their children from desert camps in Iraq and Afghanistan and from U.S. Navy ships and USO locations all over the world. (858/481-7323, www.unitedthroughreading.org)   JANE SHIOMI