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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
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About Barbara

Barbara Falconer Newhall at her home office desk getting ready to do final edits on her book, "Wrestling with God." Photo by Barbara Newhall

I’m Barbara Falconer Newhall and I’ve got a serious case of the human condition.

I’ve done it all: career, family, house, garden, and a prize-winning book, "Wrestling with God." The result: I'm a woman of years, lots of them, who can't help seeing things from the funny side.

Tucked away on this website are hundreds of riffs on life. I hope you’ll seek them out – and keep me company as I discover the humor, if not the meaning, in what life throws my way. Learn More

THE LATEST

My Husband Was Bald — And Then He Wasn’t

By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

jon-newhall-1968

With the covid shutdown, Jon stopped going to the hairdresser. Soon he wasn’t as bald as we thought he was.  Read more.

BARBARA’S BOOK

★ Publishers Weekly, starred review
Any seeker of any faith will be blessed to read the words of this fine author and observer. Read more.
"Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith" book cover with photo of author Barbara Falconer Newhall

An inveterate doubter for most of her adult life, journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall embarks upon a quest to find a way to believe in God in the twenty-first century.

The result is Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith, which details her search for the Divine in the lives of diverse Americans – from a fundamentalist Christian to a progressive Muslim to a Buddhist monk.


Seekers of all persuasions will feel represented here, from priests, ministers, and rabbis to engineers, physicists, and avowed non-believers . . . a riverflow of a book. — Phil Cousineau, host of PBS’s Global Spirit

Click to learn more about "Wrestling with God"

Recent Riffs on Life

My Days Are Numbered — And So Are My Minutes

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments

clock-12:01

My days are numbered, so I’ve decided to be miserly about how I spend what’s left of them.  Read more.

I Was Young and Single for Way Too Long — Why?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

I-was-young-and-single-for-way-too-long-why? have-him-at-hello-sticker-greenwald

I was young and single for way too long. Why? Could a book I spotted at an airport bookstore finally give me some answers?  Read more.

MORE RIFFS ON LIFE

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition

  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

  • My Ever-Changing Family

  • On Writing & Reading

Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

DON’T MISS!

For China’s Young Fashionistas the Cultural Revolution Is So Over

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 9 Comments

Two teenaged Chinese girls getting their picture taken in Beijing. One has dyed her hair orange.

Until very recently, when I thought of China, I didn’t think of fun. I thought of the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, when traditional Chinese men were forced to cut off their queues, and intellectuals were banished to the countryside to till the soil and be reeducated into the proletariat.

A Mother Who Prevailed at Auschwitz

By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

Stones left on the wall of the Dohany Street Synagogue, Budapest, in memory of Jews lost in the Shoah. Photo by Barbara Newhall

When Ernie Hollander’s family arrived at Auschwitz in 1944, his mother was ordered to the right, his sisters to the left. Read more.

My Husband Passed Away and Took the Encyclopedia With Him

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

my-husband-passed-away

When my husband passed away, he took the family encyclopedia with him. Fun facts, handy info, and beloved family stories went with him.  Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

My Ancestral Ghosts — Are They Haunting This Halloween House in Minnesota?

Are my ancestral ghosts haunting this Red Wing house decorated for Halloween. Barbara Falconer Newhall traveled to Red Wing, MN, to look for her 3x great-grandmother's houses. This house, a duplex, built in 1920, stands at the location on Third St. where her ancestor lived. Photos by Barbara Newhall

Could my ancestral ghosts be haunting this Halloween house in Red Wing, Minnesota? I wanted to think so. Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Maroon snapdragons growing in a garden. Photo by BF Newhall

A Case of the Human Condition: I Want to Kill My Snapdragons

to-do-list

Widowed: The Meaning of Life? It’s on My To-Do List

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Dying. It’s What We Do These Days

Wanxin-Zhang's-Inauguration-Day-2009-large-ceramic statue. Photo by BF Newhall

Amazing Clay — More Wonderful Stuff from the Berkeley Art Center Show

MORE DON'T MISS!

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