Alvin Zhou

Even if you don’t particularly enjoy cooking videos, you will be hooked by Alvin Zhou’s sensational bakes. They’re aesthetic, enticing, and most importantly, mouth-watering. Alvin Zhou uses only subtitles but leaves in satisfying sounds like an egg cracking or chocolate being chopped, making for an all round sensory experience. Though you’re watching through a screen, he makes it seem like you’re right there with him, stirring the sauce and browning the butter. Some of his absolute best videos include the “48-Hour Chocolate Chip Cookies” and the “100-Hour Lasagna.”

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World

This book left me completely speechless and astonished at my speechlessness. I never imagined that a book about running would have me laying awake at night, rethinking what I’d just read and contemplating whether moving to the Copper Canyons, where drug lords reign and wildlife kills, was an appropriate lifestyle change. Born to Run will defy everything you think you know about running and provide insight to the mysterious lives of Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians. Not only are they the greatest runners in the world, running 100 miles straight effortlessly, but they do so in leather sandals. As Tim Butcher, author of Blood River, said, Born to Run is “not just a classic book for runners, but for anyone who has ever dreamt of venturing beyond one’s comfort zone.”

Adrift

Based on a true story, Adrift follows the life of Tami Oldham Ashcraft and her partner Richard Sharp as they endure one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. The couple meets in Tahiti, instantly falls in love, and embarks on what they believe will be the most thrilling adventure of their lives. Before they know it, however, disaster strikes and they’re left clinging to the dwindling hope that they’re somehow going to make it through. Tami and Richard put their determination and survival instincts to the test as they battle 40 foot waves, a non-existent supply of food, and a wreck of a boat. Adrift captures and conveys the desperation one feels as madness looms closer and closer.