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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!

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.

The Writing Room: If It’s Religious, Can It Be Art?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Religious art. A rose wind in a church. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Is religious art an oxymoron these days? Can “great” art address matters spiritual in the modern era? Read more.

TV Host Phil Cousineau: “‘Wrestling with God’ Is a Riverflow of a Book”

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

a man plays the flute by a small river in winter. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Phil Cousineau, host of TV’s “Global Spirit,” praises Wrestling with God as “a riverflow of a book.” Read more.

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Photo Ops: China’s One-Child Families — They’re for Real (For Now)

A mother in Shanghai China wipes the face of her schoolage boy in a crowded bazaar in Old Town. Photo by BF Newhall

China’s one-child families may soon be a thing of the past. But for now, they are very real. Jon and I saw them everywhere during our trip to China in September — and I took lots of pictures of mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers doting on that one child. 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!

Rich, meticulous design from Josephine Glassworks, Silesia, circa 1898-1905. Photo by Barbara Newhal

Cheap Thrills at the Glasmuseum Passau — Outrageous, Over-the-Top Decorative Glass.

raven-california

Blood and Guts in My Backyard. Or, Nature Tidies Up

Perdita by Frederick Sandys is on the cover of Patricia Monaghan's Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, 2014.

A Thousand Goddesses–Some Nice, Some Not So Nice–Take Your Pick

Writer Barbara Falconer Newhall in her writing room holding a copy of her book contract with Bondfire Books. Photo by Jon Newhall

Yea! A Book Contract for “Wrestling with God”

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