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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

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!

A Lost Child in Wartime Detroit — A Headscarf Story

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

a lost child in wartime Detroit . Kern's Department Store, Detori., 1942. Photo courtesy of US Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information - Library of Congress-Prints & Photographs online catalog Public Domain 1942-07-00

I couldn’t see the point of my mother’s skimpy yellow babushka — until the day I found myself a lost child in a cavernous Detroit department store. Read more.

Today: Radio Host Bob Dutko and I Get Real on WMUZ-FM Radio

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

the face of a digital radio. photo by Barbara Newhall

Conservative Christian radio host Bob Dutko will be calling me up at 2:30 ET today to chat about my new book, Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith. Read more.

Sexy at Any Age — Tips From My 98-Year-Old Aunt Grace

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

sexy-at-any-age grace-kleis-barbara-falconer-newhall

Some of the best advice I got from my role model aunt was how to be sexy at any age.  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

Our No TV Week — The Kids Survived, but Did I?

girl on tricyclle with helmet. Photo by Barbara Newhall

What would happen, I wondered, if our family had no TV for a week. Who would complain the most? 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!

cloud-gate-millennium-park

Widowed: Do I Still Miss Him?

wedding-vows

Widowed: Our Love Is Immortal (Seriously!)

My grandmorther's pince-nez with gold chain, hairpin and laminated metal case from J.H. Chinnery, optometrist, Scottville, Michigan. Photo by Barbara Newhall

‘Tis the Season to Declutter. Or Is It?

On April 4, 2016, former employees of the Oakland, California, Tribune, had a wake in honor of the paper's last day of publication. Photos by Barbara Newhall

Oakland Tribune: The Trib Is Dead, Long Live the Tribbers

MORE DON'T MISS!

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