Tags: book signing

Come join local author Karen Riley for a special treat as she unveils her latest book on the Pine Barrens. She will give a slide show and talk about her new book, plus signing and book sales.

Highlights of The Pine Barrens of New Jersey:

• Features more than 200 vintage images from public and private collections - many photos have never been published anywhere before.

• Showcases many firsts from the Pine Barrens like the cultivated blueberry, cranberry sauce, Welch's grape juice and how cranberries are harvested.

• Contains photos of the various train lines that crossed the Pine Barrens at one time, including the only derailment of the Blue Comet.

• Depicts many of the earliest industries in the Pine Barrens including glassmaking, basket manufacturing, charcoal making, shipbuilding, and bog iron mining.

• Learn about ghost towns, abandoned buildings and the world's 8th tallest structure in a

unique peek into the past.

The definitive Pine Barrens Collection. Get your autographed copy today!

Her first book, Whispers in the Pines: The Secrets of Colliers Mills, deals with the history and environment of the northernmost part of the Pine Barrens. It was a culmination of five years of reseach into this unique area.

Voices in the Pines: True Stories from the New Jersey Pine Barrens, brought that history alive through the eyes of the folks that live and work throughout the Pinelands.

Ms. Riley will be on hand to sign copies of all there titles, which will be for sale the day of the program.

Come to a book signing by authors Dave Hart and John Calu for their new book, Trenton: A Novel. Copies of the book will be available for sale. Copies of the pair's other fictional titles about the Pinelands and Jersey Shore will also be available for purchase and signing. Light refreshments will be served. FREE.

1774. The revolution brewing in the American colonies is set to erupt in violent conflict. In Hopewell, near Trenton, New Jersey, the nearly lifeless body of an orphan girl is pulled from the Delaware River by a son of John Hart, a man whose passion for independence has brought down the wrath of the British Crown and its many local sympathizers.

Thus begins an epic two-part saga in which the Harts become pivotal players in the cause of freedom, pitted against a powerful enemy alongside George Washington, Ben Franklin, and other patriots from throughout the colonies. John Hart becomes a hunted man, and young Edward Hart-deeply inspired by the writings of Thomas Paine-falls in love, enlists in Washington's ragtag army, and suffers tragic losses on and off the battlefield before victory at Trenton changes his life and alters the course of history.

In the explosive second part, modern day Trenton comes into vivid focus as Luis Alma-son of Cuban immigrants, hero, and reluctant candidate for mayor-struggles to hold his family together. Against a backdrop of crime, corruption, and murder, a mystery unfolds linking the Alma family to the Harts of Hopewell, and a young man from the wrong side of the tracks discovers that the key to Trenton's future may lie in a secret from its past.

Calu and Hart have enjoyed a productive collaboration as novelists since 2003. Their published work includes a contemporary adventure series featuring enigmatic Garden State sites, obscure local legends, and everyday mysteries along the Jersey Shore and in the Pine Barrens. They are currently at work on another novel in the series entitled 'Spirits of Cedar Bridge'.

Dr. William B. Gallagher will sign copies of his new book, and make a presentation about dinosaurs in the Pine Barrens.

Dr. Gallagher will be available from 6:15pm to discuss and sign copies of his book When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey, which will be for sale to attendees. Dr. Gallagher will present a program about dinosaurs in the Pine Barrens from 7-8:30pm.

The event is FREE, but registration is required.

To register, contact Tom at (609) 859-8860 x14 or tomdunn@pinelandsalliance.org

Join us at the offices of Pinelands Preservation Alliance to meet Carleton Montgomery, PPA's Executive Director, to celebrate the publication of a new book he has edited. Regional Planning for a Sustainable America is the first book to document the great variety of today's effective regional planning programs, analyzing dozens of regional initiatives across North America. This book prominently features the Pinelands National Reserve and the New Jersey Meadowlands and Highlands planning initiatives.

Mr. Montgomery will be signing books and speaking about regional planning initiatives in the Pinelands and New Jersey, and the process of working with a wide variety of people and organizations to assemble the best examples of regional planning from across North America. The book is an outgrowth of a 2006 conference, organized by Pinelands Preservation Alliance and held in New Brunswick entitled Regional Planning Comes of Age, that drew more than 300 planners, environmentalists, and government officials from Maine to Florida.

The book will be available at a special discounted price, with profits on all book sales to benefit Pinelands Preservation Alliance's education and outreach programs.

The Pinelands Visitor Center will also be open, featuring books, clothing, DVDs and other assorted Pinelands merchandise.

Light refreshments will be served.

FREE. No RSVP required.