Loose Lips

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable chick lit
Review: After a stint in India as a Sanskrist expert, Selena returns home to Manhattan to become a bored teacher until she reads a weird Internet ad and she surprises herself by responding. In the blink of a cyberspace eye, Selena is interviewed, tested and evaluated to determine whether she an "extraordinary individual".

The CIA hire Selena, who relocates to Virginia, where she receives top rate instruction at the "Farm"; Selena becomes an expert in hand combat, emergency medical care, and other needed skills for someone expected to work in the cold. She is considered a potential superstar except for a fear of flying that even Jung could not cure. Selena becomes friends with fellow student Iris and dates Stan, whose memory skills are incredible. However, sh*t happens leading to the CIA Internal Affairs investigating Selena as the evidence points to her being a traitor; Stan roots for her hanging, but Selena refuses to take the fall when she knows someone set her up.

LOOSE LIPS is an enjoyable chick lit takes the CIA tale that will leave the audience laughing fro start to finish. The tale is exceptional when Selena goes through her excellent training as a top gun while her relationships are shaky until Stan enters her life. The tale remains fun, but loses some of its oomph when Selena becomes the subject of an investigation of a seditious act although she remains Pollyanna at the Farm.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable chick lit
Review: After a stint in India as a Sanskrist expert, Selena returns home to Manhattan to become a bored teacher until she reads a weird Internet ad and she surprises herself by responding. In the blink of a cyberspace eye, Selena is interviewed, tested and evaluated to determine whether she an "extraordinary individual".

The CIA hire Selena, who relocates to Virginia, where she receives top rate instruction at the "Farm"; Selena becomes an expert in hand combat, emergency medical care, and other needed skills for someone expected to work in the cold. She is considered a potential superstar except for a fear of flying that even Jung could not cure. Selena becomes friends with fellow student Iris and dates Stan, whose memory skills are incredible. However, sh*t happens leading to the CIA Internal Affairs investigating Selena as the evidence points to her being a traitor; Stan roots for her hanging, but Selena refuses to take the fall when she knows someone set her up.

LOOSE LIPS is an enjoyable chick lit takes the CIA tale that will leave the audience laughing fro start to finish. The tale is exceptional when Selena goes through her excellent training as a top gun while her relationships are shaky until Stan enters her life. The tale remains fun, but loses some of its oomph when Selena becomes the subject of an investigation of a seditious act although she remains Pollyanna at the Farm.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: It won't be staying on my shelf.
Review: At first I thought this book was going to be excellent. 4 chapters into the book and I was singing the praises to anyone who would listen. By the time I ended the story I was disappointed and felt a touch cheated. I enjoyed Berlinski's story about getting into the CIA and living in Northern VA, I know the places etc, she talks about, but she never made me feel for the characters. I skimmed the last three chapters with frustration while thinking 'who cares, I just want it to end.' If you have a lot of free time and are looking for a rather unremarkable read, then this is the book for you. This book is not a procedural novel as you may think in the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing First Book
Review: Claire Berlinski's First Book was a terrific read with a fast moving, highly entertaining plot, witty dialogue and insights and observations about the CIA that are so detailed they sound autobiographical. ... Looking forward to the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling, intelligent fiction
Review: Claire Berlinski's novel Loose Lips will keep you glued to your chair until the bitter end. The CIA training information is so true to life, you wonder how high her security clearances go. However, it's the interwoven love story that will make you shake your head, remembering all your exes who seemed so right AT THE TIME, until you discovered otherwise. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Spy versus spy.
Review: Claire Berlinski's novel, "Loose Lips," is simply terrific. It is a clever, satirical, and intelligent look at why new recruits join the CIA and what happens to them after they sign up. The heroine of "Loose Lips" is Selena Keller, an academic who holds a doctorate in Oriental Studies but has no promising job prospects on the horizon. While surfing the Internet, she sees an ad for CIA trainees and she decides to respond.

Selena, along with a motley crew of other recruits, has no idea what she is getting into. She will be mentally and physically tested in ways that she could never have anticipated. Along the way, she finds love, learns how to lie expertly, and begins to realize that being part of the CIA may require her to sell her soul.

Berlinski pulls off a difficult feat. She takes a serious subject, namely what the CIA means to America and how a person trains to be a CIA agent, and makes it entertaining. "Loose Lips" is hilarious, incisive, psychologically astute, thought-provoking, and completely satisfying. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: How about Unisex lit?
Review: Do you crave a spy story with a heavy dose of wit and intrigue? Then this is the book you want to read. I am not going to recap the plot, since other reviewers have done a good job already. What never fails to amuse me is the seriousness of the approach many readers assume when they criticize a fiction novel intended for a sheer entertainment and a light brain exercise. "The novel left me wondering, it left me unsatisfied." Jeez, must every novel end up with male and female protagonists saving the world and riding into the sunset? Although the novel did leave the reader questioning, the feeling resembles tasting a glass of exquisite wine somewhere. You remember the flavor and how much you enjoyed it, realize how much you crave for it but you never found out the name. And you never will. Does that diminish the pleasure of the experience, does that fall into the category of bad wine, simply because you didn't down the entire bottle? No. The book leaves you longing for a closure, it leaves you wandering, and that's what a good book should do.

In terms of material density, for Pete's sake, this is a fiction novel not a biography or a textbook. Did you expect to learn about the secret operations of the Federal Reserve or about the political conflicts in Turkmenistan? Some people will never stop trying to squeeze water out of a stone. You want to learn something more in-depth; fiction is not an all-encompassing source.

Also I have a problem with classifying this as chick lit. Only because it was written by a woman, about a woman doesn't mean it can only appeal to women. Berlinski used such an immaculate, spicy humor and wraped it in a layer of juicy espionage that it can easily cater to both genders. Plus let's not forget that there aren't that many female authors in the espionage genre, thus that on its own deserves to be revered as good work. I just wonder why we don't classify Ludlum's novels as "guy lit". Perhaps because somehow classifying something as <insert gender> "lit" is slightly derogatory? I am "Romance Novels'" worst enemy, cheesy, tacky, primitive, totally unrealistic hogwash, this is what I would consider "chick lit," this novel doesn't even come close. Au contraire, the author uses a very unconventional and refreshing imagery of romantic relations.

In conclusion of my rant let me just state that I highly enjoyed the book. What's more, I found myself bursting out with laughter and reading certain excerpts to my boy toy, who enjoyed them just as much, if not more. This is my final evaluation, the book has pizzazz, spice, wit, passion, interesting information, and keeps you glued to the pages. Read the book, experience it for yourself and don't pay attention to negative reviews, they don't know what they are writing.

Rating:
Summary: I suspect covert ops here!
Review: How in the world this book got so many five-star reviews is beyond me, unless the author's very obliging family enlisted a bunch of friendly "reviewers" to sing this novel's praises. Her brother, we learn at the end of the book, helped her write it, and her dad let her hang out at his place in Paris for a year while she wrote it. (It seems that having massive amounts of higher education disqualified her from actual employment.)

OK, maybe that was unkind of me. But I'm not feeling very kindly toward Ms. Berlinski at the moment. Why? Because the first chapter, which I read on the author's Web site, was a lot of fun and I was, rightfully, expecting more of the same. But I had read some of the non-five-star reviews here and decided to check it out of the local library instead of buying it. I'm glad I did, because it went quickly downhill. I wasn't sure what this book was supposed to be. Was it a mystery? No, it couldn't be, because a mystery is solved at the end, and this one wasn't. Was it a thriller? No, because it wasn't particularly thrilling. I felt duped, just like the "assets" courted by the CIA case officers.

If you are still interested in the CIA and looking for a thriller that gives insight into "The Farm," pick up Robert Littell's very satisfying "The Amateur," back in print after two decades. As for me, I raced back into the arms of John le Carre (The Little Drummer Girl) as soon as I slogged to the end of Loose Lips.

Rating:
Summary: smart chick lit
Review: I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. It has a great first person chick lit tone, edgy and hip, but it's much more than that. This is a very well written, intelligent, and carefully crafted book. It is also a fascinating peek into a world that most of us know very little about, and it reads like truth...like the writer has very accurate and intimate knowledge of her subject...or if not, then she's an even better writer than we realize! I liked that she grew to like a less than typically handsome hero, that her attraction to his intelligence made him more attractive. We also saw enough layers of the main players to know that there was more going on under the surface and things were not exactly as they appeared. Very well done. I look forward to reading what this author comes up with next.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down until I finished it!
Review: I loved this book and once I started it, I was so fascinated with the subject matter and the author's witty and charming writing style that I was glued to the book until the end! The author writes about being a trainee for the CIA in a way that makes one think she has inside knowledge. The book claims to be a novel but it actually seems so knowledgeable and realistic that the scenarios of the CIA training and CIA insider politics feel authentic. I can't help wondering if there is "insider knowledge" involved. I truly enjoyed this book and I thought the book was the most entertaining one I've read in a long time.