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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
  • FUNNY BUTTON

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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

Will I Still Be Loveable When I’ve Lost All My Marbles?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 14 Comments

Ten years from now, when I’ve lost some — all? — of my marbles, will I still be loveable? Will I even be me?  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

A 1970s Counterculture Bash at Zodiac News Service. Were You There?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 11 Comments

It was a 1970s counterculture bash at Zodiac News Service. If you were there, pls help ID these party-goer pix. (Be patient. Lots of photos to upload!) Read more.

Widowed: Archiving My Husband and Zodiac, His Scrappy 1970s News Service

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

Zodiac-News-Service-Nov-11-12-1972

Can you archive a dead spouse? Can you stash them away in a temperature-controlled academic repository, to be preserved for centuries?  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!

Widowed: The Superman at My House

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

the superman at my house Actor-christopher-dennis-superman

The Superman we spotted on Hollywood Boulevard was gorgeous. But Jon, my husband, was the man for me. He was the Superman at my house.  Read more.

Change Happens. It Just Does

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A flowering trees buds out in February 2013 in California. Photo by BF Newhall

The (Two-Year-Old) Rhetorician at Our House

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Two-year-old girl enjoys her bottle in her crib with blankies. Photo by BF Newhall

What’s rhetoric? I’ve always thought of it as the high-flown language of politics. But really, it’s something we humans do all the time, and that includes the two-year-old humans among us.

 

MORE DON'T MISS!

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

The Fine Art of Writerly Procrastination

barbara-falconer-newhall-columnist-oakland-tribune

Without an editor to set a deadline for me, the days pass merrily along as I practice the fine art of writerly procrastination.  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!

jon-newhall-on-his-deck

Widowed: ‘What Is Grief, If Not Love Persevering?’

Dave-McQueen-Zodiac

Dying. It’s What We Do These Days

trump-tower-las-vegas

Will Donald Trump Be the Death of Me? Pardon My Rant as I Shelter in Place — and Wind Up Praying for the President. Day 11

Poster with dark red background with figure of god Ganesh announcing the 2014 Himalayan Fair Berkeley.

To the Himalayas and Back — In a Day and Duty Free

MORE DON'T MISS!

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