Ringling: The Florida Years, 1911-1936 Book

David Chapin Weeks wrote a very thorough accounting of John Ringling's years in Sarasota, Florida. If you are looking for details on speculative investment, history of Florida, history of Sarasota, and how to screw up estate planning, this is your book. It is very content rich in those areas.

However, it is not an intriguing book. This book is one to slug through and it gets difficult to keep the boredom at bay. I began reading this in March and had to set it aside until September just to read the last 1/3 with fresh eyes. It is not a bad book if you are looking for this content, but it is not stimulating reading.

If you understand a basic history of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus and the ownership/management squabbles that occurred in the late 1940s after the Hartford Fire, the last few chapters will be useful in providing context in the settlement and board of directors changes. If you are looking for more details on the circus itself, you won't find much here.