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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

Was My Mother a 1950s Tradwife?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 8 Comments

at-the-beach-in-the-1940s

My mother was a tradwife, a bona fide 1950s tradwife. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she got. 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

The Trouble With Poinsettias

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

poinsettias

The trouble with poinsettias is — they don’t know that Christmas is over and it’s time to make an exit.  Read more.

Widowed: If I Visit His Grave, Will It Help?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

newhall-gravesite-colma

I said hello to Jon and his family, and then there was nothing more to do in this graveyard.  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!

The Sad State of the Supermarket Strawberry

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Large, red strawberries on a blue and white plate. Photo by BF Newhall

I’m worried about the strawberry. It’s too late for the tomato. Its innards were transformed into colorless, flavorless – but easily shippable – pulp decades ago. Which is why I’m concerned about the strawberry. Is it going the way of the tomato? Read more.

TV or Not TV: The Week We Turned Off Our 1980s Go-To Screen

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

TV or not TV? boy-with-stick

TV or Not TV? In 1987 the go-to screen for exasperated moms looking for a way to distract rambunctious kids was — the television set.  Read more.

Widowed: My Husband Keeps Dying on Me

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

pandemic-shut-down-recumbent-bike

It’s been a full eighteen months since Jon’s death, but even now my husband keeps dying on me.  Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

A Manners-Challenged Kid Who Became the Apple of His Grandma’s Eye

Small children with grandmother on Lake Michigan beach. Photo by BF Newhall.

“Move,” said my 6-year-old son Peter to his grandmother. “I want to get by.” My mother looked up from her book and gave my son a hard look. 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!

tinted-eyebrows-aging

Tint My Eyebrows? It’s an Existential Question

The audience of about 40 people at Barbara Falconer Newhall's author event for "Wrestling wiht God" on april 11, 2015, at Book Passage bookstore. Photo by Jon Newhall

What If You Threw a Book Launch — And Everybody Came?

two-slider-with-view

Our New Digs — A Room-by-Room Video. Sheltering at Home. Week 16

lace bodice of an old-fashioned mother of the groom dress with sash and chiffon rose. photo by BF Newhall

Shopping for a Mother-of-the-Groom Dress — Is That Me in the Mirror? Or Somebody’s Grandmother?

MORE DON'T MISS!

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