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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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

Widowed: As He Lay Dying

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

as he lay dying -- but he was healthy three months earlier to hangs-quilt

I wasn’t in the hospital when Jon died. I couldn’t hold his hand or say any words as he lay dying. Did he know his life was coming to an end?  Read more.

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.

My Chat With Gino Geraci — Here’s the Link

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

KRKS_FM talk show host and Christian pastor Gino Geraci hosts the Crosswalk radio show in Denver. Crosswalk photo.

If you missed my conversation last week with Gino Geraci on his KRKS-FM 94.7 Crosswalk radio show in Denver, here’s a link to the podcast. Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

A Case of the Human Condition: He Never Called Me Back . . . Why?

book jacket for Why He Didn't Call You Back by Rachel Greenwald.

The book’s cover was fuchsia, its title blunt: “Why He Didn’t Call You Back.” Just what I needed years ago when I was young and single and wondering why so many guys would take me out once or twice — then disappear without explanation. Gone. Evaporated. Poof. 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!

Author, editor and cofounder of Salon.com Gary Kamiya smiles as he reads from his new book at Book Passage. Photo by BF Newhall

Gary Kamiya — A Fun Guy Sings a Love Song to San Francisco

A photo taken probably 1962, when Barbara returned from summer in Europe with souvenirs for family. Barbara Newhall photo

My Big Brother Loves Me — The Cataract Chronicles Continued

A pair of whimsical earrings by Susan Brooks of Berkeley with blue and green beads. Photo by BF Newhall

At the Sawtooth Building: Earrings for Thirty-Six Bucks . . . And Other Hand-Made Pleasures

Barbara Falconer Newhall's left eye prior to cataract surgery. Here eyes are brown. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The Cataract Chronicles: Letting the Light Into That Other Eye

MORE DON'T MISS!

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