Rating: 
Summary: Fun holiday train journey
Review: This is a little gem of a book written by thriller master David Baldacci. It tells the story of a reporter who is making a cross-country train journey during the holiday season in an attempt to retrace the steps of his ancestor Mark Twain, and also because he just happens to be barred from flying in the United States due to an altercation with airline security personnel. (For some odd reason, I thought this part of the story was very funny.) Along the way, he meets a cast of strange and likeable characters and has quite a few adventures of his own, including meeting up with his one lost love. This book had a lot of great details about train travel -- I felt like I was right there on the journey with him. However, as another reviewer has stated, the ending was stretching it just a little bit for me. It just seemed too fantastic to be true. That being said, I did enjoy this book a lot. It was a nice holiday diversion for me -- one I would recommend reading while curled by the fire sipping hot chocolate, eggnog, coffee, or whatever your favorite Christmas beverage might happen to be!
Rating: 
Summary: 100% Wonderful- The Feel Good Book of the Year!
Review: The Christmas Train is a can't-put-down kind of book. Seeking material with which to write a book about traveling by train during the Christmas season, Tom Langdon journeys to California from Washington D.C. What Tom finds in his search is much more than he ever thought possible: himself. Baldacci writes so well that the characters and vast landscape between D.C. and California come alive. You, too, will feel like you are on The Christmas Train. Buy this book for yourself and all of your friends! You'll love it!
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, bad ending
Review: I was looking forward to reading the Christmas Train and was enjoying the novel. Train travel is familiar to me as I have crossed our country by rail, travelled through Canada and have taken lots of other train trips. The descriptive passages were memorable, and the details were extremely accurate and refreshing. The touch of romance, the sorted "train people", and the general story line a success. The only thing that truly spoiled the book for me, and I will not tell it here, was the ending!! It seemed unrealistic, and put the flames right out on an otherwise well done book. Sorry, but that is just my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: All Aboard
Review: Don't miss out on The Christmas Train. It is a must read holiday book no matter what kink of genre you like to read. It offers a little mystery, romance, and humor.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fake Holiday Cheer
Review: What happens when a good mystery writer decides that he'll do something different and write an 'inspirational holiday novel' for his fans? Well, the results is quite depressing and unsatisfactory. Baldacci, who is usually able to create great deals of suspense in his stories, fumbles around with fake characters that you can never care for and a story that is, to say the truth, overstuffed. Tom is a man who's life feels quite empty. His job as a journalist isn't as fulfilling as it once was and his romantic life is nearly nonexistant. Because you see, Tom was once in love. But because of stupid mistakes, the love of his life, Eleanor, walked out on him, and he was never able to forget himself for you. But wattaya know! When Tom takes a train a few days before Christmas, he finds that Eleanor is on the very same train. Will he be able to patch things up with her in time for Christmas? I don't think the answer to this question would surprise anyone. The main story in itself isn't bad, but Baldacci stuffed this small book with nearly a dozen other bland characters and many different plot lines that never amount to anything. Do we really need a subplot about a petty thief? Do we really need a subplot about a hollywood director? Do we really need a subplot about a young couple who will do anything to get married? As subplot after subplot clutters the story, the book ends up feeling as stuffed as an overflowing Christmas stocking. And did Baldacci need to make his Tom the saviour figure that he becomes? He enters the lives of these minor characters and changes them, always for the best. After a while, you can't help but wish that Tom would open his eyes and work some of that magic on his own self. Baldacci does not spend much time on any of these smaller characters, which makes each and every one of them feel flat and very, very, very unreal. What should have been an intimate Christmas romance ends up being a mess of characters and plot. Baldacci, who's a very competent author, stumbles left and right in this one. Although you can see that his heart is in the right place, you can't help but wish that he would have spent a little more time on the main plot and less time on the many unnecessary details.
Rating:
Summary: Yuletide Treat
Review: David Baldacci has a winner in the holiday story featuring a trainride from Washington to Los Angeles. A Pulitzer winning writer, Tom Langdon, decides to take the train to visit his sometime girlfriend for the holidays. Fulfilling a promise made to his father, Tom plans to write about the journey and the people he meets along the way. What a journey it is--wonderful scenery, quirky but interesting people and of all coincidences, he runs into the love of his life, Ellie, who he broke up with years earlier on assignment abroad. While far from "Murder on the Orient Express" a lot happens on the two trains he takes--the Capitol from Washington to Chicago and the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles. A Hollywood producer, with Ellie as his writer, is scouting the train to make a movie; a young couple hope to get married on the train and people who dont want to be alone on the holidays crave the family atmosphere and festive mood. Thrown in for good measure are a boys choir, a petty thief and a life threatening natural disaster. While not the typical train trip, it makes for a fascinating read. Baldacci's great description of the train ride, crew and sights, really makes me want to take this trip. The plot gets a little preachy on the future of long distance train travel and lack of government funding but that does not detract from the whole story.
All of the elements come together at the end for a yuletide story that has hope, love, redemption and thanksgiving. I can definitely see this becoming a "made for television" movie that will be an annual holiday treat. Don't miss this heartwarming story.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: This book was recommended by a co-worker and I honestly couldn't put it down. Its not lke Baldacci's other works at all, but still a great read.
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Summary: Full of Christmas miracles!
Review: We all have things we enjoy at Christmas - watching a particular Christmas movie, decorating a tree or other traditions. Reading The Christmas Train will be one addition to my Christmas traditions that will truly put me "in the mood" for Christmas. The story is wonderfully told, with likable, realistic characters that become dear and familiar by the end of the book, with action, humor, mystery, suspense, and tears that kept me completely enthralled from the beginning of the book to its stunning end. Some books you can predict what will happen next. Not this one! Though the reader may have hopes for what will happen next, there are no guarantees, and there are many wonderful surprises in store! Tom Langdon, an investigative reporter who has covered wars, won 2 Pulitzer prizes and has reverted to writing fluff because he is so depressed about not being able to change the world for the better, has decided to take a train trip across the U.S. to fulfill one of his dead father's requests, and to meet his girlfriend Lelia in LA. Tom doesn't really love Lelia; he just has found a comfortable companionship with her - they don't even live together, they just see each other every now and then. Tom's true love, Eleanor (Ellie), has been lost to him some years ago, and Tom isn't really sure what happened between the two of them - he just knows that not marrying Ellie was the worst mistake of his life. Imagine his surprise, then, to discover that Eleanor is on the same train as he is, working as a film writer for Max Powers, a very successful movie director. When Max and Tom bump into one another, Max has a great idea - he suggests that Tom and Eleanor work on writing the "train movie" together. Eleanor wants no part of it, but Max Powers always gets his way! Then the train becomes trapped by an avalanche, and there is such a severe winter storm going on that the more than 300 passengers worry what will happen when the train's fuel and food runs out. Who will rescue the trapped train and all the people traveling with it? An excellent, excellent holiday (or anytime) read, full of love, hope, good cheer, and miracles.
Rating:
Summary: This Train's Bound to Entertain
Review: Entertaining read of rail journey by journalist who's looking to find himself. He does just that as this cross-country via rails provides suspense, romance and comedy. Tom runs into the love of his life, surrounded by multiple other plots of cast of characters. Lifelike, good writing, entertaining reading. Enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant departure
Review: See book description above. Another reviewer thought this was like a late night movie. I myself will compare it to a made for TV movie, although it would do best on the Lifetime channel.
It was a pleasant departure from his normal thrillers, and because it was somewhat short, I decided to give it a try. I liked it. Baldacci can draw you into a story to where you actually care about the characters. Almost all the characters in this pleasant novel had something you liked about them. I don't read stories like this very often and prefer to stick with thrillers, but it's nice to take a break every once in a while and read something 'feel good'. And it kind of makes a person want to hop on a train. Recommended.
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