Main Content
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
Widowed: If I Visit His Grave, Will It Help?
I said hello to Jon and his family, and then there was nothing more to do in this graveyard. 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
Maybe I Want a Facelift After All
Facelifts that leave your cheeks looking like you’re facing into 100-mph headwinds are not for me. Or are they? Read more.
Big News — Big Changes for This 2009 Website
Two big changes for my — 2009! — website: a major redesign and a more spacious writing schedule for me. Read more.
DON’T MISS!
Two California Poets: One Romantic, the Other Not So Much
Ina Coolbrith palled around San Francisco with Mark Twain, Jack London and Bret Harte. Rebecca Foust hangs out with PTA moms. Both are California poets. Read more.
Dale Chihuly’s Glass: Fine Art? Kitsch? Or Both?
I can’t make up my mind about Dale Chihuly. He’s a glassblower, which makes him a craftsman. But is he also an artist? He’s prolific and his work is popular; does that mean he’s pandering to a mass audience? Is his work fine art—or shameless kitsch? Read more.
Judy Seidel: Click Here for an Eyeful of Her Life-Affirming Paintings
Some artists seem to be able transfer the way their minds work onto paper or canvas. And of those artists, every once in a while, it’s a mind that you’d like to spend more time with. I’m thinking of abstract painter Judy Seidel. Read more.