This is certainly no James Bond novel. James Bond novels involve villains plotting to take over the world. This book starred a woman who was plotting to take over my last nerve.

I was expecting some joking/ridicule of the CIA from this book. She painted the CIA more like "The Office" filled with horribly incompetent agents - especially herself.

She comes across as whiny and I felt more like I was reading a Sex and the City episode with Lindsay so preoccupied with rock climbing, boyfriends and quality time with her girl friends.

If Lindsay is the type of person gathering intelligence, I worry for the safety of America. If she's the type of writer that America is producing now ... well, she's a decent enough writer.

This is a 1.3 star book. ( )

I love books that give me insight that I would not otherwise have and this is one of them . Surprising how mundane her life really is . But the book is anything but . ( )

This is one of those true stories that reads like fiction. Lindsay Moran's memoir of the training and occupation of a CIA operative gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a secret world. I would have liked to know what hoops she had to go through to be able to tell her tale, but unfortunately that isn't covered. She makes the loneliness and mundane tasks involved in being an agent much too real. Also of interest is the impact that 9/11/11 had on her world, and by extension the CIA. ( )

Quick, fun read. An insightful look into the life of a CIA agent. While the job initially exposes itself to be less exciting than imagined, the reader quickly learns that the real life of CIA agent can be just as intriguing as portrayed in the movies. Lindsay Moran is Evelyn Salt. ( )

I guess you could call this book breezy, because that’s the tone, with a fair amount of worrying about weight and the acquisition and disposition of boyfriends, but basically this is about how sexism and inertia make the CIA dumb. Sexism in treating women agents worse, assuming that they’re more at risk of betraying the country for a man while letting male agents do anything with women, while also sending women agents out on the assumption that heterosexual men of other countries are more likely to spy for the US if a woman is the handler. Stupidity and waste in paying out huge sums for worthless information, with no apparent procedures in place for sorting good information from bad. September 11, 2001 made them more frightened but not any better at allocating resources. If you like your downers with a side of wacky adventures in training and avoiding surveillance, then this might be for you! Here, have another one, this time about the FBI. ( )