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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
My Mother Was a 1950s Tradwife. She Wanted It. She Got It
My mother was a tradwife, a bona fide 1950s tradwife. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she got. 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
Recent Riffs on Life
The Trouble With Poinsettias
The trouble with poinsettias is — they don’t know that Christmas is over and it’s time to make an exit. Read more.
Widowed: If I Visit His Grave, Will It Help?
I said hello to Jon and his family, and then there was nothing more to do in this graveyard. Read more.
DON’T MISS!
I Did It! I Voted! And You Did Too (Or Soon Will). Sheltering at Home Week 34
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.
Photo Op: It’s Blooming Springtime on Our Hill — In March
It’s spring in March and the daffodils are going strong on the local hillsides in the San Francisco Bay Area. So are the camelias, abutilons and iceland poppies in our front yard.
Linguist Anne Curzan: Grammar That’s Funner Than Ever
A kindly University of Michigan linguist, Anne Curzan, makes grammar funner than ever with her new guide to usage, “Says Who.” Read more.