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Title: The Christmas Train by David Baldacci ISBN: 0-446-52573-1 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.29 (91 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Too many threads to bring together
Comment: This book was recommended to me by a friend and given the setting and the plot, (a train trip I have taken and a similar broken relationship) I was set for a wonderful read. However, Mr. Baldacci seemed to empty his plot notebook into these pages, throwing in too many distractions that took away from a very good examination of the chance meeting between Tom Langdon and his one-time girlfriend Eleanor Carter. References to Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad were sprinkled in, but never really added anything to the story. About mid-way through the book when the characters were set in their orbits, too many threads are added to the plot: a mysterious thief on board, heavy-handed foreshadowing about a winter storm, the train trapped by an avalanche, passengers forced to seek shelter in a windswept tunnel, our protagonists trekking off to find help, then the revelation that all is a farce. Instead of weaving these threads into a believable fabric, all I got was a jumbled, knotted mess. I'll be trying one or two of Mr. Baldacci's other titles in the hope that those books, not written to capitalize on the Christmas shopping season, will be a better way to spend my time.
Rating: 4
Summary: Yes, Christmas Candy, Cookies, Presents, and the Tree
Comment: I made an effort to start reading this book last August but couldn't quite gain enough inertia. However, in December (2003), I found it very easy to slide into.
The implausibility of some of the plot elements, like a long lost love showing up on the same train, simply didn't matter. With good humor and attention to detail, this book will hook you. It helps to have the Holidays running at full boil, too.
Perhaps there is a difference between the reader who has often wished to take the time to travel on a train through the Rockies at Christmas, and those who have never entertained the idea. Given the time in my salad days, it would have been easy, but 15 years ago some major back problems popped up and the idea of riding a train so far... is almost diabling in itself. So, the book was a gift to me.
Consider this: there are a great many tremendous Christmas (music) albums (largely comprised of the same 20 or so songs); there are maybe 20 excellent Christmas movies. But, how many excellent Christmas books of any kind are there? Dickens, ummmm, Dickens, ummm, Dickens....? Under the right social circumstances, every popular Christmas song ever written/performed could be considered an excess of nostalgic rot. Jokes.
No, this book is a gift to the reader who comprehends the standards for a book about humans at the Holidays are very different. Dickens, given an unlikely scenario, could have won two or even three Nobel Prizes for his Christmas novels (the impact that they have had over the years should count) but no one else has come close.
Read and enjoy.
Rating: 1
Summary: Love Boat Rides The Rails
Comment: There are two good things about this book: the dustjacket and the title; everthing else is as flat as roadkill and a lot more stinky. This book should be flushed down the toilet because it's a load of crap. It's as if someone took a Love Boat script and exchanged the boat for a train. Agnes Joe, a large and at first, bullying female, is actually an undercover railroad police officer, and the priest who steals and returns other people's property isn't a priest, just a poor man who lost his wife and two sons. After reading this book, I know how high school English teachers feel after spending the weekend grading term papers. I returned the book to my bookseller. If you loved the Love Boat, you'll love this book.
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Title: Wish You Well by David Baldacci ISBN: 0446610100 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Split Second by David Baldacci ISBN: 0446530891 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Mighty Johns by David Baldacci, et al. ISBN: 1893224562 Publisher: New Millenium Pr Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Skipping Christmas by John Grisham ISBN: 0385508417 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Simple Truth, The by David Baldacci ISBN: 0446607711 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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