Class 11: My Story Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class

I really enjoyed this book. It was written from the viewpoint of a recruit who had been looking forward to joining the CIA and going to the farm. The farm is many things but the part addressed in the book is the "CIA boot camp". The book is written with the freshness of a recruit seeing and doing it all for the first time. You can feel the excitement of a young recruit with his hands on that first "rung of the ladder" that may (if he works hard and well) take him on to working in the clandestine service. The book takes the reader from the notification, to Langley, to the farm, doing external recruit training, back to the farm, and then completion of this phase of training.The book is not written looking back upon the "CIA boot camp" through years of working in the field; nor does it go beyond completion of boot camp (very far). There is a real "freshness", the excitement of youth and the "first timer" in this book. If you are thinking or dreaming of joining the agency to work in the clandestine service, read the book - it is enjoyable.If you are seriously considering joining the agency, then you may want to read this book several times and look at the mistakes the author makes there and the problems he and his classmates make for themselves by their over eager (less-than professional) attitudes towards serious training, the problems these attitudes cause during training and the problems they will generate when working in this field.If you have "been there, done that" it will give you a detailed perspective of how some of the new recruits are experiencing the "CIA boot camp" today. The people that have been in this field, that have "been there, done that" will probably not like the author nor his "frat boy" attitude towards joining the CIA. This author (and several of his classmates) will probably rank high on your "least favored person to work with list".This review is based upon the Class 11 audio book (unabridged). The audio book is well read. I plan on reading the hard back next month, as one always gets something more from the written word.

This book is a great, behind the scenes, look at CIA training and life on the Farm. It tells the story of the first class to enter training after 9/11. It is riveting.

Neat read. Unlike a lot of reviewers, I wasn't put off by the author's attitude. He gave a very detailed read of his training class, but there were some moments that it seemed like he was exaggerating (Example being the disguise debacle at the mall).

I couldn’t put it down even if I wanted to! His storytelling skills are phenomenal and keeps the reader captivated at every turn.

Great insight, terribly written. It seems like every page has to have an epic moment written in a short declarative sentence. Rather annoying.

Excellent book written by a knowledgeable and well trained officer. Suprised it passed pre-publication review.

If you've never read any book (or even a decent magazine article) on the CIA, then you might learn some basic information from this book. But there is nothing surprising or new in this book. Worse yet, you have to slog through the author's gargantuan ego and self-aggrandizement. Add to that the annoyingly constant wide-eyed descriptions of events (which the sophomoric author seems to think adds drama) and his delusions about the value, or even the validity, of what he thinks are "insights" and you have a book that wastes whatever time you spend reading it before you toss it aside -- or recycle it so that some good can come from it. One of the worst and most painful to read books I've ever encountered.

The training portions was interesting. This is a memoir, so he talks a lot about what was going on in his life, which I skipped. Others may like those parts.