The (Super) Natural

Audrey Niffenegger struck publishing gold with her best-selling first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, recently made into a movie. Now the Chicago author is back with another story tinged with the otherworldly—ghosts this time. Can the new novel live up to high expectations—and the $5-million payday it fetched?

5 Theatre Picks

Don’t-miss events for 09.23.09 through 09.29.09: Top shows from this week’s theatre bill; for our full Fall Theatre Preview, pick up the October issue of Chicago, on stands now. Plus: X’s and O’s from a real-life Gossip Girl and free jazz in Hyde Park

Honest Abe, Avant-garde

Gay, black, and a descendant of slaves, the Tony-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones mined his complex feelings about Abraham Lincoln to create a capstone dance for the Ravinia Festival

The Audacity of 'Hope'

Don’t-miss picks for 09.16.09 through 09.22.09: Ravinia wraps with a biggie … Thomas Frank weighs in on Kansas Beer returns for one night only … and in Freebies: Joffrey alfresco, plus Dybek, Kotlowitz, and Baryshnikov sightings

Seeing Red

Don’t-miss picks for 09.09.09 through 09.15.09: Something’s in the water this week: Redmoon gets wackier … Del Close returns to the screen … R.E.M.’s Peter Buck plays a starter-band stage … Niffenegger and Hemon go head to head … plus, CSO tickets for crazy cheap

Greatest Mistake

Don’t-miss picks for 09.02.09 through 09.08.09: An Oscar nom comes home … poets pay ode to the fair dino … Burnham goes celluloid … Plus, a Million Dollar Broadway nod and more