Author: Susan E. Phillips File Type: pdf ReviewTransforming Talk is impressive both in what it accomplishes and what it manages to avoid. A topic like gossip might unwisely tempt a writer into pop or pretentious theoretical cliches, but instead Phillips has produced a study that is clearly written, well documented, solidly argued, and, above all, original in general concept and its specific readings. With confidence and subtlety, Phillips deals with a wide range of late medieval writing, from obscure works to Chaucerian masterpieces, exploring not only gossips transgressions but also, and especially, its protean abilities to generate new and surprising narratives. --C. David Benson, University of ConnecticutThis is an extremely well-researched book, and the numerous helpful bibliographic and discursive footnotes are evidence of an astute scholarly mind. --A.L. Kaufman, ChoiceSusan Phillips has done us a great service in writing this book about medieval gossip, for not only does she extend the premises mentioned above with theoretical, historical, and literary support, and in clear and intelligent prose, but she also focuses her exploration at the site of the beginnings of what we recognize as English, the early modern world of late Middle English, the language of Chaucer, Manning, and Dunbar, the world of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England. --John Michael Crafton, Christianity and Literature About the AuthorSusan E. Phillips is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University.

Author: Mark Bowden File Type: mobi The acclaimed *New York Times* bestseller *Black Hawk Down* is a shocking account of modern warfare . . . gripping and horrifying (*San Francisco Chronicle*) Destined to become a classic of war reporting, *Black Hawk Down* is Mark Bowdens brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3rd, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly injured.Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowdens minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.*Black Hawk Down* ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . A descendent of books like *The Killer Angels* and *We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young*.-- Bob Shacochis, *The New York Observer*If *Black Hawk Down* were fiction wed rank it up there with the best war novels *The Naked* and *the Dead* by Norman Mailer, or *The Things They Carried*, by Tim OBrien.-- Tom Walker, *The Denver Post*Stands in a league with Shelby Footes stirring Civil War Diary, *Shiloh*.-- Jim Haner, *The Baltimore Sun*One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written.-- Kirk Spitzer, *USA Today*Amazing . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable.-- *The Philadelphia Inquirer* A *New York Times* bestseller for 14 weeks Bowdens *Black Hawk Down* series, which appeared in the *Philadelphia Inquirer* was awarded the Overseas Press Clubs Hal Boyle Award for best foreign reporting