Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In an attempt to remain fair I will review this book from two perspectives: (1) as a literary work and (2) my personal opinion of what was written. First, the book was well written. It flows smoothly and the pages turn quickly. She does not get bogged down on unimportant details and she captures the key points without getting wordy. I am not by any means a fast reader and I got through this book in just a few days. From this perspective I had had no problem. With regard to what she actually wrote, I am utterly flabbergasted. Lindsay Moran embodies and epitomizes all that is wrong with my generation. Throughout the entire book I can not distinguish between her attitude and that of some spoiled little rich kid, e.g. Paris Hilton. She never once takes responsibility for her own actions or choices. She berates the CIA for not changing its policies and procedures to be more accommodating to her. Someone within the Agency obviously did not get the memo that the world revolves around Ms. Moran. I will start with a harmless example. Throughout the book she casually mentions her diet, usually consisting of some sort of fast food or other high fat, high calorie food, not to mention copious amounts of alcohol. Yet, near the end of the book when she laments about clothes not fitting and the weight she has gained, she blames the Agency and the job of a case officer being fairly sedentary. She never even entertains the thought that if she laid off a couple of bottles of wine a week and who knows how many McBurgers, she might have been able to better maintain her weight. While stationed in Macedonia, she whines quite often about how the Agency and her job are taking away from her personal life, specifically opportunities to visit her two friends in Bulgaria. Again, someone back at Langley must have misplaced the memo describing how the CIA was simply a front to bankroll Ms. Moran's Balkan vacation. How dare the Agency actually require her to work. Finally, she is oft offended whenever the Agency wants to know about her personal life, specifically who she might be dating, especially if that person is a foreign national. These episodes are treated with great disdain and personal offense by Ms. Moran. Yet she never acknowledges the fact that she JOINED the CIA. The CIA did not draft her. Moreover, the Agency gave her more than enough prior warning regarding this condition of her employment. And yet she continued. Why? She says it outright early in the book, her ego. She wanted to prove she can make it in the CIA. So, she joined the CIA, disregarded its warnings about the conditions of employment, and then whined about those very conditions (conditions put in place to decrease the chance of a foreign intelligence service turning CIA agents). These absolute absurdities are made worse when compounded by Ms. Moran's complete lack of understanding of geo-politics and counterterrorism. Early in the book she objects strongly to a briefer when he/she mentions that the new trainees represent the "best of the best." On this point I agree with Ms. Moran, there is no way the group could have been the "best of the best", as she was part of the group.