• 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!

The Fourth of July — With Liberty and Justice for All

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

American-flag-detail with liberty and justice for all

Some think flying the American flag is a right-wing thing to do. For me, the flag is a symbol of good old “liberty and justice for all.”  Read more.

A Newspaper Story With My Name on It — That I Didn’t Have to Write

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

A newsrack in Oakland California showing papers by Bay Area News Group, which ran a story on May 10, 2015. It's an interview with Barbara Falconer Newhall, author, by Georgia Howe. Photo by Barbara Newhall

For once I was the interviewee and someone else was doing the hard work of conducting the interview. A newspaper reporter was asking my about my new book, “Wrestling with God.” Read more.

Forget Those Charming Little Forget-Me-Nots. They’re Not as Innocent as They Seem

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

forget-those-charming-little-forget-me-nots

Forget those charming little forget-me-nots. They’re not as guileless as they look. They have an agenda.  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

Seven Reasons to Be Grateful This Thanksgiving: Starting With the Rain, a Leaky Dishwasher, and You

Thick gray limbs of a Monterery pine tree in the rain. Photo by Barbara Newhall

A book that’s done and ready to go. Enough rain to green up the hills for the holidays. Pumpkin pie. And you! I’ve got reasons to be grateful, big and small. 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!

Introducing Barbara Falconer Newhall's new mobile-friendly website with pic of Barbara at age 8 with new nner tube on the beach. Photo by Tinka Falconer

Splash! My New Mobile-Friendly Website Is Here

barbara-falconer-newhall-voted-202

I Did It! I Voted! And You Did Too (Or Soon Will). Sheltering at Home Week 34

man-hanging-a-quilt

How to Hang a Quilt — We Did It Our Way. Sheltering at Home Week 36

jon-and-barbara-newhall

Widowed: He Knew How to Show a Girl a Good Time

MORE DON'T MISS!

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