This is the first full-color guide to the state of Connecticut by road bike for the moderate-level rider. It will also be useful to anyone looking for scenic routes throughout the state, although bicycle riding affords the luxury of a slower pace in the open air. With an introduction to riding and to the resources available, the book covers six diverse geographical regions of Connecticut in fifty rides. Each ride is represented by a four-page spread with color photographs of the sights, a narrative description, a map, and a concise cue sheet with directions and mileage. The rides focus on the rich historical sites; the enterprise of Connecticut's people; and the great natural resources of the Long Island Sound, Connecticut's rivers, lakes, creeks, and the hills of the Berkshires. Routes also take you through farms, picturesque small villages, city streets, forests, and bogs to view the flora and fauna of the state.

This study of the wooden Serpent figures/headdresses of the Baga people of Guinea is a collaboration by the author, as an art historian, with many contributions from diverse perspectives, including scientists preeminent in their fields, Robert J. Koestler, Roy Sieber, Dennis William Stevenson, Mark T. Wypyski, and Peter J. Zanzucchi. The text begins with a thorough exploration of the ethnological and art historical evidence for the Serpent masquerade among the Baga of Guinea, bearing an immense wooden serpent figure on top of the head representing a python. Never witnessed or photographed by an outsider, it disappeared in the 1950s along with most ritual performance after an Islamic jihad instated strict prohibitions against indigenous religions. The ritual context is followed by an in-depth analysis of the Serpent masquerade figures now extant in collections in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, as well as other representations of the python in the ritual art of the region. The final sections present the arguments, as a debate, between interested persons in the arts, including art historians, dealers, appraisers, collectors, and curators, and the scientific examinations by specialists in botany, chemistry, physics, entomology, and conservation concerning one particular Serpent figure in question.