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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

Sixteen Years Left to Live. How Many Bowls of Froot Loops Is That?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

froot-loops-at-my-grocery-store

In the sixteen years I’ve got left, how many of the gotta-do items on my to-do list will I get done?  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

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.

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.

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!

Christmas in Mexico — It’s All About the Baby Jesus

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

posada procession christmas eve 2013 san miguel de allende. photo by bf newhall

 

If it’s the Baby Jesus you’re looking for on Christmas Eve, the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is the place to be. Read more.

Kudos for Wrestling with God — The Author Shamelessly Keeps Score

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Kudos -- the Clarion Foreword Reviews logo.

Today I shamelessly brag about the kudos that “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith” has earned: lots of nice reviews and prizes. Read more.

Widowed: Caught in the Time Warp of Grief

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

giants-cap-thriller-fest-cap putting me in a time warp

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

He’s Not Bald After All. Thank You, Covid-19. Sheltering at Home Week 28

jon-newhall-Zodiac-News-Service

Thanks to the coronavirus, my husband hasn’t had a haircut in six months. It turns out he’s not bald after all. He’s got hair, lots of it.  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!

Oakland-Tribune-column-Barbara-Falconer-Newhall

Writing Retreat Report — I Got Some Work Done. Thanks for Holding Me Accountable

Two deep pink tulips bloom at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA. Photo by BF Newhall

Tulips and Sex — Writing as If Everyone I Know Were Dead

Turn of the 2oth century men and women on vacation struggling to climb the steep sandy slope of Eagle Top on Lake Michigan.

A Dune on Lake Michigan: We Couldn’t Climb Eagle Top — So We Paid Homage From Afar

A flowering trees buds out in February 2013 in California. Photo by BF Newhall

Impermanence: Everything Changes — And So Can I

MORE DON'T MISS!

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