Gail Borden Public Library District: eBooks Monthly Highlights: September 2026

eBook Highlights

September 2026

Punch Needle Fashion: 15 Punch Needle Projects for Crafting Accessories and Wearables
by Micah Clasper Torch

Discover a fresh take on a traditional craft in this ultimate introduction to the art of constructing stylish wearables from punch needle.
This modern, practical guide features 15 fashion-forward projects aimed at both beginner and intermediate makers. The rich history of this little-known craft is uplifted alongside new techniques as Micah Clasper-Torch demystifies the contemporary application of the art of Punch Needle to make a collection of accessories and wearables. All the designs are bold and beautiful, playing with texture and colour to add instant style to any wardrobe.
Packed with stunning lifestyle and fashion photography, Micah will show you how to make designs to treasure by focusing on previously unexplored construction and finishing techniques. The projects include shopper tote, decorative collar, tied crop top, waistcoat and more.

The Fashion Hound Murders
by Elaine Viets

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus is on the hunt for a killer when a pet store employee mysteriously dies after blowing the whistle on possible puppy mill connections… Josie’s latest assignment is one for the dogs - literally! Pets 4 Luv, a national pet store chain, has hired Josie to mystery shop its St. Louis suburban locations and she discovers possible puppy mill suppliers. When an employee tipster is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run, Josie’s job suddenly gets a lot hairier. Posh pets are a million dollar business for puppy mills; even so, Josie is staggered to think that her sniffing around led to an innocent woman’s murder and may have put her own life at risk. But she’s not ready to tuck her tail and run just yet. Using every bit of her secret shopper savvy, Josie must follow the designer dog trail to expose the illegal breeders, shutter the puppy mills, and finally collar the vicious killer on the loose.

The Nature of Fashion: A Botanical Story of Our Material Lives
by Carry Somers

One of our favorite reads of 2025. Dressed: History of Fashion Podcast Named one of the best fashion books of 2025 by Fashionista 2025 Foreword Reviews INDIES Award HONORABLE Mention for History What if the story of humanity could be told through a single thread? Long before we inked out thoughts onto parchment, perhaps even before we etched stories onto stone, we began spinning plant fibres. Textiles are among our earliest attempts to fashion the world around us. They have shaped our history, mythology, politics and trade, and transformed our relationship with the natural world. From the moment someone first turned plant into fibre, cloth became a language, with threads like words, spun and woven. In The Nature of Fashion, global sustainable-fashion leader and activist Carry Somers travels through time and across cultures to explore these stories: from the first bark fibres twisted into string to the snow-white nettle cloth in Echigo, Japan. We are swept up in the trade wars between medieval England's dyers, see the rise of fast fashion in Marie Antoinette's France, and land in the present with stories of regeneration and hope from El Salvador, Peru and beyond. In these stories of artists and idealists, rebels and reformers, the wisdom of the past is reconnected to the seeds of a sustainable future, offering a bold reimagining of what fashion could become. Vivid, impassioned and celebratory, The Nature of Fashion is an epic sweep through the hidden history of how we created clothing from plants.

The Last Fashion House in Paris
by Renee Ryan

In the heart of occupied WWII Paris, an elegant fashion house is the unlikely headquarters of a daring resistance network. Behind closed doors, courageous women vie to save loved ones and strangers alike from the Nazis in this powerful story of survival, friendship and second chances.
France, 1942
Once, Paulette Leblanc spent her days flirting, shopping and drawing elegant dresses in her sketch pad. Then German tanks rolled into France, and a reckless romance turned into deep betrayal. Blaming herself for her mother’s arrest by the Gestapo, Paulette is sent away to begin a new life in Paris, working as apprentice to fashion designer Sabine Ballard.
But Maison de Ballard is no ordinary fashion house. While seamstresses create the perfect couture gowns, clandestine deals and secrets take place out of sight. Mademoiselle Ballard is head of a vast network of resistance fighters - including Paulette’s coworker and friend Nicolle Cadieux - who help escort downed military men and Jewish families to safety.
Soon Paulette is recruited as a spy. Working as a seamstress by day, gathering information at glamorous parties by night, Paulette at last has a chance to earn the redemption she craves. But as the SS closes in, and Nicolle goes missing, Paulette must make life-and-death decisions about who to trust, who to love and who to leave behind…

eAudio Books

Men and Style: Essays, Interviews and Considerations
by David Coggins

A New York Times Bestseller Men and Style reaches beyond standard what to wear advice: It is equal parts style guide and intriguing conversation about the masculine identity within the world of fashion. David Coggins explores the history of men's style and learns from some of the most notable tastemakers in the industry and beyond. Its essays and interviews discuss the lessons men learned from their fathers, the mistakes they made as young men, and how they emerged to become better men. Some of the most dapper men in the world discuss bad mustaches, misguided cologne choices, and unfortunate prom tuxedos. All the men here have arrived at a place in the world and have a keen understanding about how they fit in it. Men and Style celebrates singular men who've lived well and can tell us about how they earned their worldview. They're smart enough to absorb the wisdom that's hidden in the world, and even smarter to wear that wisdom lightly.

Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity
by Monica L. Miller

Slaves to Fashion is a cultural history of the black dandy, from his emergence in Enlightenment England to his contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art world. Interpreting performances and representations of black dandyism in particular cultural settings and literary and visual texts, Monica L. Miller emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora. Dandyism was initially imposed on black men in eighteenth-century England, as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of conspicuous consumption generated a vogue in dandified black servants. Luxury slaves tweaked and reworked their uniforms, and were soon known for their sartorial novelty and sometimes flamboyant personalities. Tracing the history of the black dandy to contemporary celebrity incarnations, Miller explains how black people became arbiters of style and how they have historically used the dandy's signature tools to break down limiting identity markers and propose new ways of fashioning political and social possibility. She considers the black dandy in relation to nineteenth-century American literature and drama, Du Bois's reflections on black masculinity and cultural nationalism, the modernist aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance, and representations of black cosmopolitanism in contemporary art. Contains mature themes.

Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution
by Anne Higonnet

Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had nothing left to lose. After surviving incarceration and forced incestuous marriage during the worst violence of the French Revolution of 1789, they dared sartorial revolt. Together, Joséphine and Térézia shed the underwear cages and massive, rigid garments that women had been obliged to wear for centuries. They slipped into light, mobile dresses, cropped their hair short, wrapped themselves in shawls, and championed the handbag. Juliette made the new style stand for individual liberty.
The erotic audacity of these fashion revolutionaries conquered Europe, starting with Napoleon. Everywhere a fashion magazine could reach, women imitated the news coming from Paris. It was the fastest and most total change in clothing history. Two centuries ahead of its time, it was rolled back after only a decade by misogynist rumors of obscene extravagance.
New evidence allows the real fashion revolution to be told. This is a story for our time: of a revolution that demanded universal human rights, of self-creation, of women empowering each other, and of transcendent glamor.

Murder at the Paris Fashion House: A Totally Addictive 1920s Cozy Mystery
by Nancy Warren

A Chicago news reporter chasing her big break in jazz-age Paris, an exclusive with a renowned couture designer, and a stepmother lying dead among the silk and sequins…
Paris 1925: When news reporter Abigail Dixon trades the Chicago newsroom for the Paris fashion scene, she finds herself dazzled by the latest looks from Coco Chanel, sipping champagne at the Ritz, and interviewing a famous designer. Stepping into his luxurious atelier on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Abigail is ready to swoon over the exquisite gowns. The last thing she expects to find is her estranged stepmother lying dead on the fitting room floor - and Abigail framed as the prime suspect.
With only her high school French to defend herself to the debonair Inspector Henri Deschamps, Abigail must use her investigative skills to unravel a tangled web of family secrets and find the real murderer if she is to clear her name.
Aided by new friends including young news reporter Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel and dashing Lord Frederick, Abigail explores the elegant city of lights - from the magnificent Notre-Dame to the alabaster halls of Versailles - in search of the clues that will solve this deadly mystery.
But over coffee and croissants one morning she reads a letter warning her that she is in grave danger and must leave Paris immediately.
As Abigail swaps her très dowdy two-piece for a très chic silk chemise and a sharp bob to match, can she keep her wits about her, find the cunning couture killer, and prove her innocence so she can stay in the city that’s captured her heart?

To Dye for: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick--And How We Can Fight Back
by Alden Wicker

Many of us are aware of the ethical minefield that is fast fashion: the dodgy labor practices, the lax environmental standards, and the mountains of waste piling up on the shores of developing countries. But have you stopped to consider the dangerous effects your clothes are having on your own health? Award-winning journalist Alden Wicker breaks open a story hiding in plain sight: the unregulated toxic chemicals that are likely in your wardrobe right now, how they’re harming you, and what you can do about it.
In To Dye For, Wicker reveals how clothing manufacturers have successfully swept consumers’ concerns under the rug for more than 150 years, and why synthetic fashion and dyes made from fossil fuels are so deeply intertwined with the rise of autoimmune disease, infertility, asthma, eczema, and more. In fact, there’s little to no regulation of the clothes and textiles we wear each day - from uniforms to fast fashion, outdoor gear, and even the face masks that have become ubiquitous in recent years. Wicker explains how we got here, what the stakes are, and what all of us can do in the fight for a safe and healthy wardrobe for all.

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