Evelyn's Best Books of 2025 + Book Club ZOOM Link
Evelyn & Joanna's favorite reads this year
Hello, Protagonists!
In this post, you’ll find:
📚 Evelyn’s Favorite Books of 2025
✍🏼 Spare Time with Evelyn Skye
📖 Book Club Details + Zoom Link
Reminder! Our “Read Like a Writer” Bookish Holiday Party is this Sunday, December 7th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Zoom Link at the bottom of this post
📚 Evelyn’s Favorites of 2025
The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye
Am I biased? Yes.
Do I honestly think this is great gift book? Also yes.
If you know someone who enjoys feel-good stories or who wants a little more hope in the world, pick up a copy of The Incredible Kindness of Paper—
Description: Long-lost pen pals Chloe Hanako Quinn and Oliver Jones are pulled back into each other’s orbit when yellow origami roses—each carrying a quietly radical message of kindness—begin appearing around New York City, mysteriously linking strangers’ lives. With a touch of magic and a lot of heart, the novel explores second chances, community, and how one small act can change the trajectory of a life.
**You can also download a free Book Club guide (discussion questions and fun book club party ideas) on my website or right here:
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton - the latest brainy mystery from the author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I love the way Turton makes me think, not just about the whodunnit, but also about bigger, underlying questions about what makes a perfect society? and what makes us human? Bonus: the book’s dedication is one of my favorites I’ve ever read.
Description: The planet is shrouded by a lethal fog that has wiped out all life except for a small community on one island, where citizens live under the constant vigilance of scientists and an AI. When one of the scientists is murdered and the barrier holding back the fog is disabled, a rebellious villager named Emory must unravel the mystery before the fog consumes them all.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo - psst, this is going to be one of our book club picks for next year (details on those coming soon!) I loved this clever Wuthering Heights retelling, plus I learned a lot about a sport I was unfamiliar with.
Description: Katarina “Kat” Shaw and Heath Rocha rise from hardship to become elite Olympic ice dancers, bound together by passion, ambition, and tumultuous loyalty. But a shocking incident at the Olympics ends their partnership. Then, a decade later, an unauthorized documentary stirs old rumors—compelling Kat to reclaim her story and expose the secrets behind their dramatic fall.
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean - this author usually writes historical romance, but I was impressed to see how deftly she switched over to contemporary fiction about the complicated relationships between siblings, as well as parents and adult children, especially when wealth is involved.
Description: After years of exile, Alice Storm returns to her family’s secluded Rhode Island estate for the funeral of her controlling father—only to discover he’s left behind a ruthless inheritance game forcing her and her siblings to confront old wounds, buried secrets, and one another. Amid the pressure, Alice must navigate complicated loyalties, simmering attraction with her father’s right-hand man, and her own longing for redemption.
✍🏼 Spare Time with Evelyn Skye
A fun, small thing: I’m spinning off a small, VERY occasional newsletter called Spare Time with Evelyn Skye.
Lately, I’ve been wanting a quiet space to share the small things I’m exploring outside of work—what I’m reading or learning, a class I’m taking, something I’m baking, the little joys that don’t quite fit our regular Creative Inspired Happy rhythm.
Everything related to publishing careers will still live here on Creative Inspired Happy.
Spare Time is simply a softer corner for the personal bits of my life. It’ll automatically land in your inbox just a few times a year (you will get a separate notification email about it in the coming days, but feel free to unsubscribe if all you want is Creative Inspired Happy).
📖 “Read Like a Writer” Bookish Holiday Party — This Sunday!
How do book nerds party?
With cookies and a book club!
Get yourself some hot cocoa, a plate of cookies, and pull up an armchair—you’re invited whether you’ve read the book or not.
🗓️ Sunday, December 7th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT - ZOOM link below
📚 Book: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
“Read Like a Writer” Book Club is for our community members who want to dive even deeper into how great books work. Come nerd out with us! 🤓
💬 During the book discussion, we’ll chat about:
Consider the author’s decision to center a non-romantic love story.
How does removing the “will-they/won’t-they” trope change tension architecture?
How does Zevin code friendship on the page (beats, callbacks, micro-conflicts) so it reads as high-stakes as romance?
Optional exercise: mark the first specific moment that signals this is a story about collaboration, not romance. What would a lesser opening have done?
How does the three-act scaffolding reveal itself (inciting incident, midpoint shift, crisis and resolution)?
Or think of it another way: If you mapped the book to a video game’s level progression, where are the boss battles?
Do you see parallels between the video game industry and book publishing?
How are funding, publishers, critics, and audiences portrayed?
Does the novel romanticize or accurately mirror creative industries?
💬 During the “behind the scenes of writing” portion, we will talk about:
What we were proud of accomplishing this year—both reading and writing
Our hopes for our creative practice next year
We think this is going to be a wonderful conversation!
Zoom link is posted below the paywall to keep our gathering cozy and private.
(This also prevents any non-book-loving Zoom crashers!)
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Refer friends to receive complimentary months:
1 referral = 1 month free
2 referrals = 3 months free
3 referrals = 1 year free
✨ Note for fellow introverts:
You are welcome to come as you are—cameras on or off, display names changed or unchanged. No pressure, just presence.
📹 This session will be recorded for those who can’t attend live.