reads

2026

  • Anger, Thich Nhat Hanh

  • Litle Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

  • The Mindful Athlete, George Mumford and Phil Jackson

  • This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan

  • The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese

  • The Life Worth Living, Joel Michael Reynolds

  • A World Appears, Michael Pollan

  • Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi

  • Upward Bound, Woody Brown

  • Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

  • The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn R. Saks

2025

  • The Half-Life of Marie Curie, Lauren Gunderson

  • The Polygamist’s Daughter, Anna LeBaron and Leslie Wilson

  • Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese

  • The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk

  • Being Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh

  • The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt

  • What Happened to You? Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Perry

2024

  • The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley

  • The Psychedelic Experience, Timothy Leary

  • Outlive, Peter Attia

  • No Mud No Lotus, Thich Nhat Hanh

2023

  • Finding Ultra, Rich Roll

  • In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

  • Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake

  • We Were Dreamers, Simu Liu

  • The Cafe on the Edge of the World, John Strelecky

2022

  • Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Healthcare, Marty Makary

  • Patients at Risk: The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Healthcare, Niran Al-Agba & Rebekah Bernard

  • I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

  • The Other Wes Moore, Wes Moore

  • When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi (re-read)

  • Patients at Risk, Niran Al-Agba and Rebekah Bernard

  • Hot Light, Cold Steel, Michael Collins

2021

  • When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi

  • Educated, Tara Westover

  • Caffeine, Michael Pollan

  • Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, John Carreyrou

  • Being Mortal, Atul Gawande

  • No Period Now What, Nicola Rinaldi

  • Good Calorie, Bad Calorie, Gary Taubes

  • Know My Name, Chanel Miller

  • Humor, Seriously, Jennifer Aacker and Naomi Bagdonas

  • The Moment of Lift, Melinda Gates

  • Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker

Alena Shen

I’m an LA-based medical student who loves cooking, baking, lifting, and running! Browse a collection of my recipes to try something new.

Next
Next

Meet Sally