• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

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

Main Content

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

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

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

newhall-gravesite-colma

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.
"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

Maybe I Want a Facelift After All

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 12 Comments

window-with-houseplants

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

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 16 Comments

Big Changes for This 2009 Website lawn-chair-on-deck

Two big changes for my — 2009! — website: a major redesign and a more spacious writing schedule for me.  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!

Five Things I Like Best About My Kitchen

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A stainless steel bar mounted over a ceramic cooktop holds a Tonala platter. Photo by BF Newhall

We remodeled our kitchen in 2000, and we made some design decisions that still make me happy. Read more.

Regulations: Will Trump’s Slash and Trash Deregulation Put Americans at Risk?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Our future after regulation 'reform'? More scenes like the Oakland Ghost Ship fire that killed 36 mostly young people, artists, musicians, LGBTQ folks. A few days after the fire, it was cordoned off as a "crime scene." Photo by Barbara Newhall

Do we really want to dispense with government regulations that prevent disasters — like the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36? Read more.

SXSW: Quirky, Lovable Austin, Texas

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Cartoon of LBJ showing off his scar in the Johnson Presidential LIbrary in Austin, TX. Photo by BF Newhall

Austin, Texas, is quirky – in a good way. During a recent visit, every bridge, park and intersection I encountered in this Central Texas city made me smile. Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

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

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Confessions of a So-So Wife: The Night I Forgot to Make Dinner

Jon Newhall at the kitchen counter preparing salmon to bake for his wife's birthday. Photo by Barbara Newhall

It would be the dinner of my dreams, the married life I’d imagined as a girl back in Detroit. The table would be set, the chicken roasted to a golden brown. 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!

pratt-and-larsen-tile-niche

It’s True. My New Bathroom Is . . . Beautiful

Author Barbara Falconer Newhall opens her copy of Publishers Weekly magazine, which had just arrived in the mail, to find that her book, Wrestling with God, got a starred review in the January 21, 2015, issue. Photo by Jon Newhall

“Wrestling with God” Got a Starred Review From Publishers Weekly — And I’m Doing the Happy Dance

children's book reviewer barbara falconer newhall has tossed a children's book in the trash. Photo by BF Newhall

Do Books Have Rights? This One Didn’t. I Threw It in the Trash.

A copy of Barbara Falconer Newhall's paperback book Wrestling with God and the author. Photo by Barbara Newhall

It’s Here! A Copy of “Wrestling with God” Has Arrived

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2026 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in