Twenty-five years later, it’s impossible to eat a Magnolia Bakery cupcake or sip on a Cosmopolitan, much less to carry a Fendi Baguette bag or wear a pair of Manolo Blahniks, without thinking about Sex and the City. Hal Rubenstein can explain why. In his new visual book, Dressing the Part, the former Men’s Style editor at The New York Times and founding member of InStyle magazine reveals how much television impacts fashion trends. From interviews with costume designers and show-runners to tidbits of gossip, Rubenstein celebrates the 50 shows with the largest impact on fashion over the last 50 years. Personal photographs and sketches accompany a deep dive into the stories behind series from Miami Vice and The Avengers to Empire and Downton Abbey. ($40, amazon.com) —Jeanne Malle

Our affection for Devold, a heritage knitwear brand from Norway, is well documented. We rely on its wool sweaters, socks, and thermals for the most punishing climates. Now the stylish Maria Lilly Flakk, whose family has owned the brand for generations, has launched a sister brand, A.O.D. It stands for Ole Andreas Devold, who began making knitwear that could withstand the conditions endured by the fishermen in his native Ålesund back in 1853. Flakk and designer Olmes Carretti have reimagined Devold’s heritage patterns in made-for-today silhouettes, and the results are irresistible. We’re starting with the Blindleia No. 1, a turtleneck beauty made of fine lana merino, kid mohair, and silk—hardy enough to be worn on a warm day in Lech, but sufficiently elegant for lunch at Le Bernardin. (Just add jewelry.) ($750, oadevold.com) —Ashley Baker

If anyone can make talking about classical music scintillating, it’s Joanna Lumley. The English actress (eternally Absolutely Fabulous who also manages to find the time act in Fool Me Once) and her husband of nearly 40 years, conductor Stephen Barlow, invite listeners into their home every Tuesday and Thursday with their new podcast, Joanna Lumley & the Maestro. Lumley peppers her charming spouse with all sorts of laymen’s questions about Mozart, Bach, and lesser-known favorites, while guests ranging from Bradley Cooper to organist and radio host Anna Lapwood make for lively third parties. They bring this rich universe to life with style and verve—easy listening, but with enough gravitas to feel nutritious. (podcasts.apple.com) —Ashley Baker

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Wrong. James Patterson and Mark Seal reveal the salacious secrets of Sin City through stories of its most eccentric characters. Beginning with the scuba divers who maintain the Bellagio fountains, the book travels from gritty strip clubs to glamorous desert yoga retreats. Some especially entertaining introductions include Charolette Richards, who invented the drive-through wedding, and Raymond Torres, a limousine driver for the elite chauffeur collective known as “the Untouchables.” It’s a must-read for anyone wondering what really happens in the city that Hunter S. Thompson once dubbed “the savage heart of the American Dream.” ($34.50, amazon.com) —Paulina Prosnitz

The gods of streaming must love the novelist Harlan Coben, since the 12 (so far!) adaptations of his thrillers are all twisty pleasures. Fool Me Once, which is now available on Netflix, is melodrama at its best, complete with false leads, a satchel of suspects, and enough cliff-hangers to make California’s coastal Route 1 look like a straightaway. Maya Stern, played beautifully by the British actress Michelle Keegan, is a recently widowed former military-helicopter pilot whose bad luck includes the murder of her sister just a few months before her husband got killed. Of course, there is the wealthy mother-in-law, played with clenched brilliance by the absolutely fab Joanna Lumley, and the bumbling and mysteriously ill detective portrayed by Adeel Akhtar, who in the past has handled comedy and drama (The Big Sick, River) with equal aplomb and here almost steals the show, which is quite a feat given the fine performances by the entire cast. (netflix.com) —Jim Kelly

Unless you read Marie Brenner’s 2015 article in Vanity Fair about the terrorist acts that drove tens of thousands of French Jews to move to Israel, you might not know how flammable anti-Semitism in France was then—and is now. A new play by Joshua Harmon, Prayer for the French Republic, brings that feeling of crisis to the stage, with empathy and also comedy. The play flashes between a quarrelsome Jewish family in Paris around the time of the shootings at the Hyper Cacher, a kosher market, and their grandparents, who hid in Paris during World War II, waiting to learn the fate of their deported loved ones. History informs the past, the near past, and the future: given what is happening in cities and on campuses in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, this play could not be more prescient or timely. The fact that it brings wit and self-awareness to the issue makes it all the more worthwhile. (from $103, manhattantheatreclub.com) —Alessandra Stanley