Elmira Ali

Sign in Subscribe

Latest — Mar 24, 2025

A date around the potter's wheel

In the beginning of March my husband and I had a chance to attend a wheel throwing workshop in a cozy Alike studio in the Stara Praga neighbourhood of Warsaw. We rarely visit the right bank of the Vistula River, and Praga is a notorious district, but the neighbourhood was

More issues

Book review: The 12 Week Year

Full title: "The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months" by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, published in 2013. I kept seeing people online who shared that they successfully implemented the 12 Week Year as their primary time and

Book review: The Psychology of Money

Full title: "The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness" by Morgan Housel, published in 2020. It was the last book I read in 2024, and it is an easy read on a difficult topic we face every day. Although the advice given might sound

Books

I do not consider myself a bookworm, but reading is a childhood habit that I would like to revive in 2025. I hope this page serves as a tracker and a motivation tool. Below is the list of books I am currently reading, the books I recently read (sometimes linked

Happy New Year!

Dear reader, May the year 2025 bring us all peace, calm and hope for the better future. Let this year be a year of steady foundations to build on. Wish us all to shine brighter, grow stronger and be true to ourselves. I hope this year will be full of

Five French podcasts I recommend

I still remember the very first podcast episode I have ever listened to: it was How To Actually Learn A New Language With Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months from the College Info Geek podcast released back in 2014. Amusingly, the way it started combines two things I enjoy

Book review: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Full title: "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed" by Lori Gottlieb, published in 2019. A while ago my good university friend recommended that I read a book of a psychotherapist who shares stories about her clients and her own experience

Four books that helped me prepare to welcome my baby

When I was 7 months pregnant I took an online course dedicated for future moms by Alexandra Anykina. In my opinion, Alexandra is the most qualified and professional Russian-speaking author of such courses: focused on evidence-based medicine, child psychology and modern attachment theory. I found her both trustworthy, but also

Roman holidays

My family and I visited Rome for 60 hours at the end of August. This is how I remembered the trip a week after returning home. First of all, 60 hours is not nearly enough to see the whole of Rome. The city impresses you with its grandeur from the

Impossible list

Bucket lists are popular; almost everyone has one: either defined in the form of a written to-do list with an obvious deadline or in the form of a cloud of someday dreams. The Impossible List is something different. The first time I encountered an Impossible List was in Thomas Frank&