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A delightful journey filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief...and a story that shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams, especially during this season of miracles.
Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to L.A. in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight "misunderstanding" at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and holiday magic.
He has no idea that the locomotives pulling him across America will actually take him into the rugged terrain of his own heart, as he rediscovers people's essential goodness and someone very special he believed he had lost.
Equal parts hilarious, poignant, suspenseful, and thrilling, David Baldacci's The Christmas Train is a delightful journey filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief...and a story that shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams, especially during this season of miracles.
Chapter One
Tom Langdon was a journalist, a globetrotting one, because it was in his blood to roam widely. Where others saw only instability and fear in life, Tom felt graced by an embracing independence. He'd spent the bulk of his career in foreign lands covering wars, insurrections, famines, pestilence, virtually every earthly despair. His goal had been relatively simple: He had wanted to change the world by calling attention to its wrongs. And he did love adventure.
However, after chronicling all these horrific events and still seeing the conditions of humanity steadily worsen, he'd returned to America filled with disappointment. Seeking an antidote to his melancholy he'd started writing drearily light stories for ladies' magazines, home-decorating journals, garden digests, and the like. However, after memorializing the wonders of compost and the miracle that was do-it-yourself wood flooring, he wasn't exactly fulfilled.
It was nearing Christmas, and ...
Christmas/Holiday books
I have the NIall WIlliams book on hold at my library, too (I love "Small Things Like These"; For pure fun, I like David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series & he usually has a very loosely-themed Christmas entry each year. "Christmas Train" by David Baldacci is a nice quick read. But my all-time fav...
-Carol_Ann_Robb
If you liked The Christmas Train, try these:
by John Grisham
Published 2004
Grisham offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition.
by Mary Higgins Clark
Published 1999
Another Christmas season mystery that will keep readers turning the pages -- all through the night.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
