Barbara

At Tuolumne — Celebrating Getting Born

December 3, 2011 By Barbara 6 Comments

mountains and lake inyo national forest. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

We spent one of our days at nearby Inyo National Forest. Photos by Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall, with a little help from her friends

Barbara Falconer Newhall makes a snowball at Into. Photo by Al Aistrope.

Birthday hike in the snow at 10,000 feet. Last year's heavy snowfall still hadn't melted. Photo by Al Aistrope.

On my last birthday, in September, I had three wonderful days at Tuolumne Meadows and Inyo National Forest in the Sierra Nevada with two wonderful friends.

It was probably my best birthday ever — though there’s maybe some forgotten birthday back in my school days when I dressed up in a tafetta dress, put on my Sunday-best patent leather shoes, played pin the tail on the donkey and accepted wonderful gifts from my little girlfriends, also dressed up in tafetta and patent leather.

We were pretty, surely. But Tuolumne [Read more...]

Filed Under: A Case of the Human Condition Tagged With: birthday, don't miss, inyo national forest, sierra nevada, tafetta, tuolemne meadows, yosemite

A Three Dishwasher Day — Make that Four

November 23, 2011 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Carving the Thanksgiving turkey. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

She gets the turkey ready for Uncle David to carve. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

By Barbara, aka Mom

I’ve loaded the dishwasher three times today. Daughter Christina madly baking Thanksgiving turkey, pies, peeling squashes, and cooking up some kind of sauce [Read more...]

Filed Under: A Case of the Human Condition Tagged With: Christina Newhall, pie, squash, thanksgiving preparations

Book Openers: How’d He Get an Audience with Her?

November 22, 2011 By Barbara Leave a Comment

A very convincing cardboard Pope Benedict blesses the crowd -- and Barbara

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Yes. That’s me with the Pope.

OK, he’s cardboard.

But I’m real.

The cardboard Pope and I were at Moscone Center West in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon for the combined conference of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.

He was at the Ignatius Press booth touting the second volume of his Jesus of Nazareth series to the scholars and grad students attending the conference.

And I was all over the place that day and the next pitching my books to the very helpful editors who were there to display their books.

Lots of books. It was a book lover’s feast.

The Pope, btw, is a lucid, compelling writer — but to read him you’ll need a taste for good, old-fashioned, conservative Christian theology.

His books sell pretty well. Of course, as the head of a biggish, global church, Pope Benedict has a heck of a platform. No worries there.

Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week — From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, Pope Benedict XVI, Ignatius Press, $24.95 hardcover

Filed Under: Book Openers Tagged With: american academy of religion, ignatius press society of biblical literature, pope Bendedict

The Writing Room: Writing Tips from Jasmin Darznik of “Good Daughter” Fame

November 9, 2011 By Barbara Leave a Comment

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jasmin Darznik was at the Book Passage bookstore in Marin county, California, Monday night for the monthly meeting of the Left Coast Writers. She had some tips for wannabe writers, particularly memoir writers.

Tip # 1: Jasmin’s New York Times bestselling memoir, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life tells the story of her mother’s marriage in Iran at the age of 13. Jasmin spent months interviewing her mother in Farsi, taking notes about her mother’s life in Iran. [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Writing Room Tagged With: book passage, don't miss, iran, iranian writers, jasmin darznik, left coast writers, mark childress, memoir writing, southern writers, squaw valley writers, the good daughter, writing tips

Book Openers: Memoiring in the Mountains with the Bestselling Jasmin Darznik

November 8, 2011 By Barbara Leave a Comment

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I first met Jasmin Darznik back in 2006, and right away she presented a problem.

We were in the same nonfiction workshop – it was led by agent Michael Carlisle – at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley.

I had dutifully read Jasmin’s manuscript the night before our class – and for the first time in my workshopping career, I thought I had nothing helpful to say to the writer. [Read more...]