Rating: 
Summary: Christmas story that warms the heart
Review: Get back to basics with a thriller after reading this. Last Man Standing is pretty good. Sovereign Rule and 4 Blind Mice look to be good too. Okay not your average Baldacci. This isn't a thriller it's a Christmas story. Sort of like David Baldacci is following John Grisham's footsteps. Grisham has Skipping Christmas, Baldacci has Christmas Train. The story's good. It'll touch your heart. It's not great though.
Rating: 
Summary: A Delightful Christmas Story
Review: Here we have a delightful holiday love story with "SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE" written all over it. It has all of the ingredients: the lure and lore of transcontinental train travel; Christmas music; humor; romance; mystery; a huge snow storm (read "special effects"); a cast of pleasantly interesting characters; and an ending chock full of surprises. What's not to like?The story itself has been well outlined by the Amazon.com reviewer, and it is a good story well told. It contains no foul language, no overt sex, and no violence. The novel's' secondary characters are almost uniformly well-intentioned, friendly, blessed with common sense and politically correct. (The workers on the train all work hard, love their jobs and always know what to do; the "wheelchair lady" has MS but "never lets it get her down" and "is full of good spirits despite her disability"; etc.; etc.) All of the secondary characters, that is, except for the lawyer who is utterly despicable, and who quickly gets his comeuppance!! The main characters, of course, have predictable minor flaws (like Tom Langdon's anger, which usually surfaces when an injustice is about to be done), but we never doubt that they are all fundamentally "good" people. In short, there is nothing in this novel that would ever initiate a "letter to the publisher" by a distraught reader (except, perhaps, by the Bar Association). Although none of this is bad in itself (this IS a Christmas story, after all), I found myself wishing that Tom had been more like Philip Marlowe and less like Jimmy Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life". I think it would have made this a much more interesting story with a much more powerful ending. However, I don't believe that this was ever meant to be a penetrating work of literature that would reveal surprising truths about the human condition. Rather, I think it was meant to be, and is, a light diversion that will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy; a Christmas cordial that is meant to be slowly sipped, enjoyed, and then reluctantly put aside. It is a real escape from what currently passes for "entertainment" on TV and in the movie theaters. To use another metaphor, this is a sweet holiday bonbon!
Rating: 
Summary: Crazy Train - All Aboard
Review: You would be crazy to waste your time with this book. I picked it up as an audio book rental from a cracker barrel on a recent trip and what a horrible book. The book itself was bad and the guy they got to read it was even worse. I would have rather listend to NPR in pig latin vs. this book. For those giving this book rave reviews...are you serious?? Are you being paid by the baldacci's? The train engineer didn't think to back the train up until the engines ran out of fuel. They blew the snow off with a helicopter. Dumb - Dumb - Dumb - Dumb - Dumb. Did I mention that it was incredibly dumb? Sorry, I don't write reviews but this was so horrible I couldn't let anyone else make the same mistake I did.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't stop shaking my head
Review: Who cares that Tom had steak for dinner and it was good? How does a lecture about the relationship between Amtrak and freight railroads fit into the story? More importantly, after this lecture is given by the laid-off Amtrak employee who still rides the rails, why does the chapter end? This is representative of the often useless Am-facts peppered throughout the book. They had no purpose, at least they weren't integrated well. Furthermore, it illustrates how conversations in the story would start and stop without realistic openings and definitely no purposeful closure. On page after page, the dialogue was disjointed and illogical. At worst, it was of mediocre high school student quality. I also agree with the folks who were insulted by the African American characters. They were all so musical! I'm sure that plays into the comfort stereotypes of so many people. Oh, and did I mention the dialogue? It was painful.
I could almost believe most, if not all of the events taking place in the book. You run into people on the train who don't stop talking about trains. You meet all sorts of folks. And in life, a wide range of twists take place and work out. The problem with this book is that none of them are developed, so that what could be a fascinating element of the story ends up being a two-sentence summary. "It turns out character X was a bad person and he realized it. He now wants to be a better person." Sometimes it was that bad.
Rating: 
Summary: A WARM, WONDERFUL HOLIDAY STORY.............
Review: Hard to articulate how wonderful I found the Christmas Train. Full of colorful, lovable, animated characters, readers will find a reason to love each of them. Tom Langford, having been banned from air travel, has decided to travel by train to meet his sometime love Lelia in California for Christmas. A journalist, Tom sees this as an opportunity to pen an interesting story of rail travel. What he encounters is more than even he could have hoped or bargained for. Along the way he encounters a former Catholic priest, a famous Hollywood producer, and what was once the love of his life. This is a tale of unrequited love, danger, friendship, mystery, and hope....; enjoy!!
DYB
Rating:
Summary: Pay Attention to the Bad Reviews. They are Right On!
Review: I picked up this book immediately after reading Grisham's "Skipping Christmas." When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be a lot better than "Skipping Christmas." I was soon disappointed. It ended up being as insulting to the intelligence as "Skipping Christmas." I would have to think really hard to figure out which book was worse. I'm trying to figure out if it was part of Grisham's and Baldacci's book deals to write really lame Christmas stories and that they waited until the last minute and threw this crap together in order to meet a deadline. I really can't understand the good reviews that this book got. This book is not worth your money or your time.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Ride
Review: How delightful of Mr. Baldacci to depart from his usual style to write this engaging tale! I thoroughly enjoyed my trip! Bought a couple books for Christmas stocking stuffers. It reads like an old fashioned romance black and white movie with a little intrigue. Something light that Alfred Hitchcock would have done. The reminiscing of older train rides now just memories to our older family members was interesting to read about and the book left me wanting to believe in the magic of trains and Christmas.
We need to read more of these from Mr. Baldacci's pen. Nice to read from a man's perspective.
Rating:
Summary: wated time and money
Review: This book isn't worthy of your time or money. Mindless pap would be a good description of this drivel. A total bore of a book that would have been better left unwritten and unread.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful book.
Review: What a fun, delightful, informative read. I have only read two of David Baldacci books, this one and Wish You Well. I have thoroughly enjoyed both of them. In my opinion Mr. Baldacci is a truly talented writer. He can take an everyday subject and spin an engrossing tale from it. He does not resort to foul lanquage or gratuitous sex to enliven his plots. He simply writes about life.
The information he includes about the history and inner workings of the passanger train is fascinating. In lieu of boring you with high praise of this book I will merely say ...this is a
good book, pick it up and read it especially during this holiday season.
Rating:
Summary: The Bore-iant Express
Review: Ok, so the great cover sold me on this book. I am a train buff and thought "Just how bad can it really be?" It was worse. I once gave it as a Christmas gift to another train buff friend; no wonder he never sent a thank you card. When I was through, I couldn't even donate it to the library.
| 
