The JBL Go 4 bluetooth speaker is the perfect size for personal use, and its sound quality has proven to be good enough for having a dance party with friends. It’s so easy to take anywhere and connect to instantly, that I find myself listening to music all the time now. Right now it’s priced at $40 and available in multiple colors. It would make a great gift or stocking stuffer. — CD

Looking for a unique holiday gift for your favorite curious person? A premium subscription to my long-running blog, Boing Boing ($45/year), is like giving them a year-long ticket to a cabinet of curiosities. Your gift recipient gets our new ad-free site and newsletter covering tech, art, and wonderfully weird cultural phenomena. It's the gift that delivers fresh surprises every day. — MF

If you're curious about the occult and esoteric but unsure where to begin, Vestus Mysteria is a great newsletter to subscribe to. Joe, the writer, is a history buff who provides clear and easy-to-understand context on the most mysterious subjects. I appreciate that he includes links to sources and book recommendations for those who want to learn more. Each issue feels like taking a sip of the unknown. Here’s a link to a recent issue where he explains the origin of the phrase "Dark Night of the Soul". — CD

In our home we went with window blinds instead of curtains. Over three decades we’ve tried all kinds of blinds, and have settled on these Persilux Cellular Cordless Shades as the best. Through some kind of magic you can raise or lower the blinds with two fingers, and the blinds will rest at the level you leave it. There are no strings to haul or to get tangled. You can get translucent or blackout versions. A number of different brands make them; the key words seem to be “cellular cordless.” The Persilux brand has worked great and I order them online. — KK

The Public Domain Review website resurfaces forgotten visual treasures and literature. It’s one of my daily visits. Its online store offers museum-quality prints from their vast archive of historical art, illustrations, and curiosities. Check out this surreal 1892 illustration of meteor showers over Niagara Falls. — MF

These nearly flat ThinOptics reading glasses are made from elastic nitinol metal and shatterproof polycarbonate and weigh less than two sheets of paper. The genius is their magnetic case, which attaches to your smartphone for quick access and secure storage. — MF

AudioPen is a voice recording tool that transforms my rambling thoughts into coherent, well-structured text. I recommended it last year, but it’s worth resharing since it’s now available as an app on both iOS and Android. The free version allows you to record voice notes up to 3 minutes long and save up to 10 processed notes, all without needing a credit card. The prime version offers more features, including the ability to record up to 15 minutes, save unlimited notes, and adjust the writing style. I continue to use AudioPen regularly for summarizing calls, capturing ideas, and drafting newsletter posts. — CD

The Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland is one of the best museums I’ve ever visited and I’ve visited a lot of museums. It’s a several hours meander through recreated time periods over thousands of years, which immerses you into that period with brilliant veracity. It emphasizes the everyday life at each period, which makes it larger than just a Jewish experience. I recommend a visit to the museum even if you are only interested in the art of exhibits, storytelling, and immersive experiences. — KK

Our son recently convinced us to upgrade from a Roku streaming device to an AppleTV 4K device ($130), particularly since we are an Apple systems family. This small box is a huge and surprising improvement. It was insanely easy to transfer all streaming accounts using my iPhone, which I can also use as a remote. It easily pairs with Airpods for private sound, instead of the old wired earphones we had. But the best thing is how Siri is incorporated. You can ask, “what did they say” while watching a video and it will back up and repeat the last bit of dialog. Or I can audibly ask it to run “For All Mankind” and it will search and find it among all the streams we subscribe to. No typing to find out where a particular show can be watched. That alone is worth the price of admission, but there are a lot of other cool smart features as well, like displaying photos from my phone. — KK

SaveWisdom.org is a project dedicated to preserving individual wisdom. On the website, there are 1000 questions designed to interview someone about their early life, formative experiences, values, perspectives, and challenges. These questions are intended to invite deep reflections and greater self-understanding. They are open-sourced and can be used freely for personal use. Because of this website, I feel empowered to interview my grandmother, who is flying in from Morelia, Michoacán at the end of this month to celebrate her 80th birthday. Inspired by this list, I have been creating my own list of curious questions I would like to ask her. I plan to record her answers to gift to my extended family. — CD

This retro-style Amazon Basics suitcase turntable is an inexpensive way to rediscover your vinyl collection. Audiophiles with precious LPs should steer clear, but this lets you play your dusty collection without committing to a complex setup. It has built-in stereo speakers and it plays all three speeds (33/45/78). Bonus: it doubles as a Bluetooth speaker for your phone. — MF

I am really enjoying the book The Mythmakers, which is mostly a graphic novel about the productive friendship between JR Tolkien and CS Lewis, who basically invented the fantasy literature genre for adults. This book slips in and out of text and comic drawings in an easy way, and it makes it fun to see the two friends inspire each other to invent. The pair, and the graphic novel, explore the meaning and power of myths, versus mere stories, as a transcendent medium. It’s the best thing on myth making since Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth, which is free on YouTube. — KK

I appreciated this Instagram post as a reminder that happiness or a happy ending does not necessarily mean getting what you wanted. When faced with challenges, I experience the most growth not by everything working out as I had hoped, but often by accepting situations and people just as they are. Acceptance also helps me discover a better, more resilient version of myself, one with a greater capacity to face obstacles. Some of the other possible happy endings listed are: finding yourself again, making new connections, and trusting yourself to take the next steps. — CD

Tom Rosenthal wanders London's parks with a simple mission: find someone sitting alone on a bench and ask if they'll chat for his podcast, his podcast "Strangers on a Bench." He keeps his guests anonymous - no names, no workplaces. Listening to a few episodes hammered home the realization that there's no such thing as an ordinary life. — MF

If you're finding that using quotation marks no longer returns exact phrase matches on Google, here's a workaround: After conducting your search, click on "Tools" under the search bar, then click on “All Results” and choose “Verbatim”. This will display search results that match the exact phrase you entered. — CD

The next big step after installing solar panels on your roof is to install big batteries in your garage. That way you can manage your power better and have plenty on hand during power outages. The slickest off-the-shelf solution is a Tesla Powerwall. The non-Tesla alternative we went with is about the same price ($12,000 per 13 kwh) and capacity, but with a slightly longer warranty. We installed two Franklin lithium iron phosphate batteries, the standard composition for homes. Instead of feeding our electrons back into the grid at a low price, we get to use all the energy we produce during evenings and nights, and for charging our electric car. And during storms, we keep the lights and refrigerators on. Franklin is a complicated system installed by pros. For the true do-it-yourselfer who wants the cheapest possible home battery system, go to BigBattery.com to get your gear. — KK

In 1987, my wife Carla and I launched Boing Boing, a zine exploring cyberpunk sci-fi, indie comics, and fascinating oddballs. It evolved into a blog with contributions from our journalist friends, covering technology, culture, politics, and wonderfully weird discoveries. After 20 years of increasing ad dependence, we're excited to offer an ad-free premium version that's so much cleaner. Recomendo readers get 25% off their first year – I hope you'll check it out! — MF

This all-in-one package tracking page will be particularly useful during the holiday season. It allows you to track up to 40 packages from over 2,500 different carriers worldwide. — CD

An artist I follow on Instagram is Andy Thomas. He creates these very whimsical, hard to explain animations of fantasy shapes. He says he does not use AI. They appear to be half biological, half algorithmic creations and are unlike anything I’ve seen. I like their energy. — KK

This titanium quick-release keychain is built like a tiny tank with a clever ball-bearing collar mechanism. I use it to separate my house key from a carabiner that's clipped to my shoulder bag. It takes deliberate action to detach (no accidental separations), yet disconnects smoothly when you want it to. Here's a photo so you can see how small it is. — MF