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About Barbara

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
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.

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
Recent Riffs on Life
My Days Are Numbered — And So Are My Minutes
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments
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? Could a book I spotted at an airport bookstore finally give me some answers? Read more.
DON’T MISS!
For China’s Young Fashionistas the Cultural Revolution Is So Over
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 9 Comments
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
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
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.