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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
Bob Woodward’s Sad and Dangerous Friendship (Journalism Students Take Note)
An essay about Bob Woodward’s sad and dangerous professional friendship could be required reading for journalism students. 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
Will I Still Be Loveable When I’ve Lost All My Marbles?
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.
A 1970s Counterculture Bash at Zodiac News Service. Were You There?
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.
DON’T MISS!
Oakland’s Jingletown: Arts, Crafts, Cool Kitsch — And Cookies
It was a lovely afternoon for wandering in and out of artists’ studios in Jingletown, Oakland, California’s vibrant, up-and-coming arts neighborhood, earlier this month. More than a dozen neighborhood artists had opened their doors for the annual East Bay Open Studios. Read more.
I Miss My Grown-Up Children — More Than I Can Say. Sheltering at Home Week 30
I last put my arms around Peter in January. He was here for his birthday, I haven’t seen him — or his sister — since. Read more.
Small Boys: Reading, Writing — And Yucky
Let’s face it. Kids, some kids, naturally love raunchy jokes and faces. There’s one living at my house who loves everything yucky. Read more.