NPR: Lynn Neary

Since it was first published in 1984, What to Expect When You're Expecting has changed the way millions of women have experienced pregnancy.

With advice on everything from indigestion to postpartum depression, it's a detailed guide to virtually every moment of pregnancy — some say perhaps too detailed.

Dawn Baker didn't get the book at her baby shower last month, and she wasn't disappointed.

"I've actually been told that it's not a go-to resource anymore for modern-day women," Baker says.

'Is It Normal?'

When Chelsea Handler's last book, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, was released in 2010, the comedian-turned-writer accomplished something very rare. She had three books on the best seller list, all at the same time. Not only that, she beat Karl Rove to the top of the list.

"When we found out that I came in one and he came in two," Handler recalls, "my sister said — she called me and she said — do you think Karl Rove is sitting in his study in his boxer shorts thinking, 'Who the hell is Chelsea Handler?'"

When the popular World War II novel From Here to Eternity was first released in 1951, the subject of homosexuality in the military was taboo. The new version of the book, which comes out Tuesday, restores passages that were censored in the 50s. And it's being released not in hardcover, nor in paperback, but as an e-book by Open Road Media — a company which is banking its future on digital publishing.

Several years ago, journalist Mitchell Zuckoff came across an article about a World War II plane crash in New Guinea that had all the elements of an unforgettable story: There was a terrible accident in a harsh landscape, three survivors, a hidden world with a stone age existence, and a heroic rescue mission. Zuckoff tells that epic tale in a new book, Lost in Shangri-La.

There's a whole new way to read your kids to sleep these days — or to distract them while you are trying to get something done. If you have a smartphone or an iPad, you can download a kids' book app in no time. From classics to stories created specifically as an app, these enhanced e-books include narration, animation and interactive features. Some children are even getting their first exposure to books on a digital device.