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The Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, is one of the most talked-about new American buildings in decades. The first of three inaugural events took place Thursday night. NPR's Fred Child attended the concert and filed this report.

Mom and pop bookstores vie for your literary dollar this season, hoping you'll shop sooner rather than later. NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks to three independent booksellers about their best bets to expand the mind and open the wallet.

Artist and humorist Bruce McCall has a new collection of drawings, All Meat Looks Like South America. McCall uses his skills as a draftsman to create unlikely cultural designs, such as "Golf Carts of the Third Reich." He says he grew up seeing schematic drawings of the future in magazines such as Popular Mechanics, and uses that aesthetic in his art. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel.

In the new Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Daffy Duck sets a plot in motion that involves secret agents, out-of-work stuntmen, half of Las Vegas -- and Steve Martin as the head of the Acme Corporation. NPR's Bob Mondello says the cartoon comes with post-modern antics and nearly non-stop jokes.

Bill signings and handshakes are the norm for White House photographers. Capturing the personal moments of presidents and their families is more difficult. Time photojournalist Diana Walker spent decades taking presidential pictures, often snapping scenes other photographers missed. See a gallery of her work.

Los Angeles' new Walt Disney Concert Hall is meant to be not only a grand space for orchestral music, but also to attract people who may never have visited a concert hall. The Frank Gehry-designed facility makes its debut Thursday, and its architectural and cultural appeal will be tested. Hear NPR's Mandalit del Barco.

Prior to the Civil War, some free black people owned slaves. Author Edward P. Jones picked up on that little-known fact and has written a vivid first novel that looks at slavery through a different lens. On Morning Edition, hear an interview with Jones and a review of The Known World. Read an excerpt of the book.

Nearly four decades after the end of the Civil War, W.E.B. Du Bois set out to collect images that accurately portrayed the spirit of America's blacks. He wanted the photographs to help counteract stereotypes of African Americans as poor and uneducated. NPR's Michele Norris talks with the author of a new book about Du Bois' collection.

Kathy Harrison has served as a foster mother to more than 112 children over the past 15 years. She tells her story in a new book called Another Place at the Table. Hear Harrison and NPR's Scott Simon.

Swiss-born blues musician and historian Walter Liniger is spending the weekend in Montreux, teaching blues harmonica to 400 Swiss postal administrators. He speaks with NPR's Scott Simon.