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About Barbara
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
I’m Going on a — Homemade — Writer’s Retreat
By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment
I’m going on a homemade writer’s retreat. Just me and my laptop. No dental appointments. No lunches with friends. No Facebook. No Instagram. Read more.
New! Get Barbara’s Special Gift
Wondering how that kid of yours will turn out?
Take heart. They might surprise you. My daughter did!
I tell that story in this free Special Edition, Was our daughter headed for the dark side?
To get your copy of this free downloadable PDF, enter your email below – and check your Inbox. Enjoy!
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Recent Riffs on Life
It’s Spring and My Garden Looks Dreadful. Here’s Why
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 4 Comments
My garden looks dreadful. Here’s why. My plants won’t cooperate. The iris wants to be an iris. The azalea, an azalea. The poppy, a poppy. Read more.
Widowed: He Knew How to Show a Girl a Good Time
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 6 Comments
I was in the right place at the right time for the 2017 solar eclipse because my husband, Jon Newhall, knew how to show a girl a good time. 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.
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
DON’T MISS!
A Chance to Get Acquainted With That Muslim Next Door
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments
Two days after September 11, a friend warned Sumbul Ali-Karamali, a Muslim American, that she should display an American flag outside her house. Ali-Karamali, is author of “The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing.” Read more.
I Did It! I Voted! And You Did Too (Or Soon Will). Sheltering at Home Week 34
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments
I voted, and I’m pretty sure you did, too — or you will have by the time the day is out. You and I and tens of millions of other Americans. Read more.
Little Girl Lost — My Mother’s Magical Babushka
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 5 Comments
When I was three or four years old, my mother took me shopping at a big department store in downtown Detroit. It might have been Crowley’s or Kern’s or Hudson’s. Shoppers crowded the aisles and soon, my mother and I got separated and I found myself alone. Read more.