Archive - Body of Work: Belle de Jour

Cheeseburgers In Paradise

My husband had never heard of Jimmy Buffett until we'd been married for about five years. Unsuprising really - he’s from the Birmingham in England and…

Sep 3, 2023 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

May 2023

The Unbearable Weight of Life After Fame

This morning I saw it was announced that Heather Armstrong, an early blogger formerly known as Dooce, had died. She wasn't a friend. But we came out of…

May 10, 2023 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

November 2022

Bonne Anniversaire

Most of the people in my life are already aware that I am spectacularly bad at remembering special dates. If there is a big birthday or anniversary the…

Nov 10, 2022 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

June 2022

Scenes from an abortion

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is

Jun 25, 2022 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

May 2022

Amber Heard and the Problem of Perfect Victims

TW: domestic abuse Even if you are not regularly on social media it will have been difficult avoid hearing about the Depp/Heard defamation hearing…

May 20, 2022 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

November 2021

Monster in a Box

"I just accepted that as a part of my life, accepted that forever I would always be a little in the place that I was not.." Spalding Gray

Nov 17, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

July 2021

Some of my regulars, the couple with early dementia, have a crime fiction and thriller library of frankly mind-boggling size. It’s larger than some…

Jul 16, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

Tilting at Windmills

This is another part where I have to admit I’m bad at telling a chronological story. So, the first time I went to Florida after Dad died, we got a…

Jul 2, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

June 2021

I live in the hills behind a former company town. A two-lane county highway that bisects the village in the valley below us is lined with batt-and-board…

Jun 18, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

May 2021

I arrived at the address given to me by the cleaning app, guided there by Google Maps which signs me in on arrival. There's a locked gate. I check the…

May 28, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

So I was not entirely truthful when I said we threw out or burned everything from inside of Dad’s house, because there was one thing. It’s the box. Back…

May 21, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

The clients are a young married couple, born about the time I graduated from college for the first time. On the up and up. The condo is decorated in…

May 7, 2021 •

Dr Brooke Magnanti

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