Rating: 
Summary: Perfect Book for a Summer Afternoon
Review: I picked this book up on a summer Sunday afternoon and could not put it down. It is well-written, humorous and intriguing. I loved it! All I could think of was myself at a similar age and how I might have landed up in the same situation.As others have pointed out, it is fairly evident that Ms. Berlinski had some "inside" information on the training of CIA agents. Whether from personal experience or through a friend, I believe that she has given us a glimpse of the inside. This makes the book even more compelling. For once I am happy to say, "try it, you'll like it!"
Rating: 
Summary: I Needed More Closure
Review: I was intrigued by the plot of this book. The main character, Selena, is on the hunt for a job and comes across an ad for a position with the CIA. On a whim she applies, and after thorough background checks and psychological tests she is hired. The book jacket goes on to say that she meets a man in the class and things get interesting once Selena and her boyfriend are spying on each other of all people. It sounded like a good fun read. The story is a very good one and the writing is quick witted and the author has invented a mish mash of characters. I enjoyed the first half of the book thoroughly and couldn't put it down. And then at some point, the wit isn't there anymore and the spying that Selena and her boyfriend do on each other is serious...and not funny. The story left me hanging and didn't allow me closure to Selena and what happened. I must say that this is how things in life do turn out...but I thought I was reading fiction and wanted an ending.
Rating:
Summary: I Needed More Closure
Review: I was intrigued by the plot of this book. The main character, Selena, is on the hunt for a job and comes across an ad for a position with the CIA. On a whim she applies, and after thorough background checks and psychological tests she is hired. The book jacket goes on to say that she meets a man in the class and things get interesting once Selena and her boyfriend are spying on each other of all people. It sounded like a good fun read. The story is a very good one and the writing is quick witted and the author has invented a mish mash of characters. I enjoyed the first half of the book thoroughly and couldn't put it down. And then at some point, the wit isn't there anymore and the spying that Selena and her boyfriend do on each other is serious...and not funny. The story left me hanging and didn't allow me closure to Selena and what happened. I must say that this is how things in life do turn out...but I thought I was reading fiction and wanted an ending.
Rating:
Summary: Very, very good and authentic
Review: I'm not a veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, but I've read about them and have been around Intelligence Community for over a decade. My feeling is that Berlinski really did capture what it is like to be a case officer for the CIA, i.e. one of the people who makes a living by persuading others to become traitors. The bottom line is that what the author writes seems to me to be real enough that I'm left wondering who she might have talked to in order to get the insight that she displays in the book. I find myself thinking that this book might be a thinly disguised autobiographical account since the dust jacket is a little bit skimpy on details about where she's worked. In any case, if anyone wants to know what the classic type of intelligence officer (not "spies") does for a living and what it takes, "Loose Lips" is the book to read. I wouldn't be surprised if I see it show up at the CIA giftshop. I've seen other novels there. My only gripe is that the book was so good I wanted the story to last longer than it did and show the heroine in the field. If Berlinski wrote like Tom Clancy or Stephen King, a five or six hundred page long book would be way too long. But given her outstanding writing at under 300 pages, "Loose Lips" is too short. But then again, perhaps that's an application of the principal of always leaving your audience wanting more.
Rating: 
Summary: Ever felt tricked?
Review: If not, don't read this book and you won't have to kick yourself for falling for hype. A) I'd read a review elsewhere that said Berlinki tells when she should show. I didn't know what this meant until I slogged through this book. Lists of the most inane things, detailed covert op reports that are just boring, and even whole passages of newspaper articles relating to nothing in the story. B) Loose lips? Loose ENDS! The author relates irrelevant details, so that you can read for pages and then think, "Okay, why was that last bit important?" C) As to people waxing ecstatic about the attention to spy detail...umm..Google much? You can find all this information online (e.g. countermeasures to a polygraph test) without having to slog through page after page of the protagonists' whining. D) The abbreviated conversation Berlinski has with her brother in the process of writing the book is the only truly funny aspect. Maybe he should pen his own novel?
If you just must torture yourself, email me and I'll send you the book for free.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, endearing, and funny!
Review: In her engaging, endearing, and funny first novel, LOOSE LIPS, author Claire Berlinski manages to overcome any first time jitters, as she builds on a world with which many readers are familiar - the CIA, including its recruiting and training process. This novel is no mere roman à clef. Berlinski's portrayal of Selena Keller as a woman with no sense of personal mooring, adrift in a world that lacks remorse, is positively brilliant. This is because, in Selena's quest for certainty, she turns for safe harbor to the CIA, home to deception, lies, and duplicity. What a clever paradox. So as Selena Keller becomes more certain about some items (the ability to drive a car, to recognize location and position, even increasing her awareness to the external environment about her), she becomes more uncertain about others (relationships in particular: between friends, between lovers, between sexes, between employers and employees, etc). Truth plays a central role in this novel, as both metaphor and simile, and arguably, as this novel's central protagonist. (NB: the many aphorisms.) For all Selena does learn, she remains confused, lost. In some senses, it is odd that Selena fails to recognize how two key people physically change to achieve their objectives (good spycraft?), even though she notes the actual changes without speculating on their true motivations. For example, near the novel's end, she helps two friends reconcile their relationship, but to achieve this, she has each assume a role not in keeping with who they truly are. The two lovers do get together, but at what cost to themselves and their relationship? This novel's coda provides the fireworks for the more literary-minded readers. Until this point, the novel is fun, but when it takes a turn to the serious, Selena Keller becomes a fuller, more-seasoned character who has something to say, to offer readers beyond mere entertainment. Appearances indicate that Claire Berlinski has no intention to write a series of escapades based on this character, which is to Berlinski's credit. However, given the opportunity, the Selena Keller who finally emerges at novel's end deserves more breathing room, perhaps even her own novel that has nothing whatsoever to do with the CIA. Good show!
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid at all costs
Review: It's hard to describe just how bad this book is. I can only suspect that some of the 5-star reviews here are from dubious sources. Don't bother with this turgid piece of semi-literary horror. The writer is obviously still struggling to find her real vocation. One thing's for certain, it's not lit-fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Starts out great...then fades fast
Review: Like an earlier reviewer, I was also completely hooked for the first 4 chapters, but then it seemed like the story ran out of steam. The Selena that ended the book was not the same woman who started it - she seemed to be making some pretty uncharacteristic errors for someone who had just completed training to be a spy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun Reading, but Not Enough
Review: Loose Lips provides a fun, good read, but left me unsatisfied in many respects. Loose Lips is about Selena Keller, a recent graduate with her doctorate in Sanskrit. She is facing a life in academia, probably at an obscure Midwestern college, when, on a lark, she applies for a job at the CIA. She is quickly interviewed, tested, grilled, and hired. The majority of the book describes her experiences in training to be a case officer. The quality of this book comes from its detail of the inner workings of the CIA and from Berlinski's use of language. Main characters are well-sketched, but ancillary characters are sometimes lightly brushed over. Be aware that the novel never shows the main character in the field or as a spy. This is more a novel about the rigors of penetrating, understanding, and assimilating to CIA culture.
Berlinski writes well, using strong, unique language and peppering her plot with humor. Toward the end of the book, however, the humor dries up and the narrative starts becoming haphazard. The reader is left with many unanswered questions about the crux of the novel: the truth. The novel is never misrepresented (the character says at the very beginning, 'I will never know the truth'), but I always remained hopeful that matters would have some resolution and I would close the book satisfied. However, the reader is left confused about the reality of the character's situation, the true nature of her colleagues and friends, and what really was the point of the whole ordeal. It is also somewhat unclear why someone like Selena, who is so unlike the rest of the trainees, was chosen for the CIA and why her failures and sometimes questionable background are overlooked.
Overall, this is a fun read, but you do not gain a whole lot in the way of insight. It is interesting to learn about CIA culture and training, as well as the expectations of this demanding job. There were, however, too many things in the book that left me feeling unsatisfied.
Rating:
Summary: I've yet to finish this book
Review: Loose Lips" was a great read, but then again, I'm a lover of secret agent novels.I immediately fell in love with Claire Berlinski's main character. Selena Keller is in my mind, the perfect CIA woman. She was witty, grounded, practical, and very resourceful.
I was also glad that Selena didn't fall into the category of "slutty CIA" that most spy girls tend to fall under. You know the kind- wears a skimpy dress, becomes the mastermind bad guy's mistress, gets the inside information via said sex-crazed mastermind. In fact, Selena was portrayed as a rather brainy person. Hmm.
Get the book.
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