Twinkling lights, new toys, barrel-aged beer and holiday markets usher in the weekend. Here are 10 things to do in and around Chicago.

Oprah Winfrey joined Michelle Obama on Tuesday night at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, as she begins the tour touting the already best-selling “Becoming.” Here’s what to know about the tome and the tour.

Geoffrey Baer floats through a bygone colony of houseboats that once populated our city’s favorite Y-shaped waterway in this encore edition of Ask Geoffrey.

He’s been making hats and gloves for 45 years, but they’re not designed to keep us warm. Meet the man behind some eye-catching creations.

Decades after it premiered in London, the mega-musical “Miss Saigon” is still captivating audiences around the world. Meet three of the stars from the new touring production.

Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and T.I. will work as judges in a new Netflix competition series looking for the next big hip-hop star.

Over the weekend, world leaders gathered in France to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that brought World War I to an end. We remember Illinois’ sacrifice during the Great War.

A record number of women are heading to Congress. How might this shift affect governmental policies both foreign and domestic?

This wildly imaginative version of Mary Shelley’s classic is at once handmade and high-tech, and as you take your seat at Court Theatre, you immediately sense that something completely out of the ordinary is about to unfold.

Michelle Obama's "Becoming," already expected to sell millions of copies, now has the official backing of Oprah Winfrey. Obama’s book tour begins Tuesday at the United Center, with Winfrey serving as moderator.

Coming up: Lincoln Park Zoo Holiday Market, Hinsdale Christmas Walk, Caroling at Cloud Gate and more.

Verdi’s monumental and altogether ravishing “Requiem” is a signature work of Maestro Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In light of recent shootings, Thursday’s performance brought even greater potency and fire to this work.

In her memoir, “Becoming,” Michelle Obama says she felt “lost and alone” after suffering a miscarriage and underwent in vitro fertilization to conceive her daughters. Her tour begins Nov. 13 at the United Center. 

New York-based architect Robert A.M. Stern is anticipating the completion of his first Chicago skyscraper, Streeterville’s One Bennett Park. 

In her new book, Imani Perry tells the overlooked story of "A Raisin in the Sun" author and Chicago native Lorraine Hansberry. 

A study in the darkness and luminosity inherent in human interaction, “Take” is nothing short of spellbinding. And it marks a new high point in artistic director Nick Pupillo’s always original, sensual, highly charged choreography.