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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

Will I Still Be Loveable When I’ve Lost All My Marbles?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 12 Comments

Ten years from now, when I’ve lost some — all? — of my marbles, will I still be loveable? Will I even be me?  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

A 1970s Counterculture Bash at Zodiac News Service. Were You There?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 11 Comments

It was a 1970s counterculture bash at Zodiac News Service. If you were there, pls help ID these party-goer pix. (Be patient. Lots of photos to upload!) Read more.

Widowed: Archiving My Husband and Zodiac, His Scrappy 1970s News Service

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

Zodiac-News-Service-Nov-11-12-1972

Can you archive a dead spouse? Can you stash them away in a temperature-controlled academic repository, to be preserved for centuries?  Read more.

MORE RIFFS ON LIFE

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  • 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!

At Tuolumne — Celebrating Getting Born

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Celebrating my 70th birthday with friends at Tuolemne Meadows. Barbara Newhall photo

Turning 70 was way better than turning 8 — because I spent the day at Yosemite’s beautiful Tuolemne Meadows with friends. Read more.

A 1970s Counterculture Bash at Zodiac News Service. Were You There?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 11 Comments

It was a 1970s counterculture bash at Zodiac News Service. If you were there, pls help ID these party-goer pix. (Be patient. Lots of photos to upload!) Read more.

A Meditation for Holy Week: An Afterlife Where Time Does Not Exist?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

an-afterlife-where-time-does-not-exist Lisbon-cathedral-crucified-christ

Eternal life? That’s got to be boring as hell. How about an afterlife where time does not exist, that’s outside of time as we know it?  Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

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

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.

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!

A stack of books on getting published in the library of author Barbara Falconer Newhall. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Brooke Warner: Getting Published Is Easier Than Ever. Getting Discovered, Not So Much

barbara-falconer-newhall-editing-herbook

Getting Older: I’m Not ‘Keeping Busy’

The cluttered desk and computer of a busy writer. Photo by BF Newhall.

The Writing Room: My Flesh Is Weary — Too Much Book-Writing, Not Enough Yoga

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

MORE DON'T MISS!

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