I’d seen this book available for the last few years and it kind of looked interesting – I’ve enjoyed several of  Balducci’s other novels,  Besides,  it was on sale.  –

Too bad – it’s about 1/2 stupid and 1/2 okay – fortunately it gets better as it goes along.  The premise is that Tom Langdon is a fictional single, world-weary writer, 30-something in age,  has to take a train across the US at Christmas time.  He’s going to try writing about his travels and he meets several interesting characters.  The book we get is part travelogue,  part train advocacy,  part romance and part country philosophy. with a bit of a mystery thrown in.  For the most part,  it didn’t work for me very well although as I kept reading it did get a bit better.

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The Christmas Train
by David Baldacci
2003 / 304 pages
read by Tim Matheson – 7h 4m
rating 5 –  seasonal fiction 
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I suppose a theme here is that sometimes we get second chances – other times we have to jump at the first when it’s the only thing that makes sense.  Also,  people are generally very good and sometimes seeming miracles do happen – Santa brings them.