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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 6 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!

My Deceased Husband’s Voice — Coming at Me From the Stars

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

my deceased husband's voice father-daughter

My deceased husband’s voice came at me the other day — from across the years, all the way from 1988 and a summer’s night under the stars.  Read more.

Mom With Kids — The Home Office Blues

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A 1986 home office with computer, crib, toddler and cat. Photo by Barbara Newhall

I liked being shoehorned into a 9-by-11-foot home office with three computers, a telephone, a cat, and a dear husband — most of the time. Read more.

It’s Launch Day for “Wrestling with God” and I’m Hoping You’ll Buy a Copy . . . or Two or Three

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Author Barbara Falconer Newhall joyfully shows off her copy of Wrestling with God with cover design by Michelle Lenger. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Wrestling with God has arrived. Today is launch day, and I’m hoping that my subscribers will be the first to go to Amazon and their local bookstores to order themselves a copy. Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

The Quilt From Hell — Forty-Two Years Later, It’s Still Not Finished

An unfinished quilt and stray piece of calico overflow from a storage drawer. Photo by Barbara Newhall

It had been staring at me from that drawer for decades. The quilt from hell. My wedding present to my brother and his wife. Never finished, never presented. 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!

"Seattle Cloud Cover," by Teresita Fernandez, 2006, a pedestrian bridge with photographic material between layers of glass. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The Olympic Sculpture Park — An Artful Stroll on Seattle’s Waterfront

writer's block is addressed insightfully in Jane Anne Staw's book Unstuck

The Writing Room: Writer’s Block and the Toxic Reader

Peter Newhall lifts his Reds baseball cap during Piedmont CA rec department game. Photo 1991 by BF Newhall

Will Our Kids Grow Up to Be Cheaters Like Lance Armstrong?

chimney-rock-hikers

My Husband Died, and Denial and Distraction Are My Go-To States for Now

MORE DON'T MISS!

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