MIDDLE GEORGIA BOOKSHELF: "For Sale - American Paradise: How Americans Were Sold an Impossible Dream in Florida"

By Willie Drye. Drye covered the cop beat for The Telegraph from 1984-1986. He now lives in North Carolina, dividing his time between Wilmington and Plymouth.

294 pages, $18.51 (Lyons Press)

What it's about: The tragicomic tale of how Florida became entwined with Americans' dreams during the roaring '20s. The cast includes the Marx Brothers, William Jennings Bryan, Al Capone and assorted dreamers, schemers, visionaries and thieves. "For Sale-American Paradise is a paradigmatic American story -- looking for the good life," says William J. Bennett, host of "Bill Bennett's Morning in America." "It captures a ton of this deep American restlessness, idealism and determination."

The author says: The book includes the story of how a small group of wealthy men heavily invested in Florida used their influence to misrepresent the damage done by the catastrophic hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 that killed thousands and left tens of thousands homeless. Because of their deception, the American Red Cross for the first time fell short of its fundraising goal to help victims of a disaster.

Where to find it: www.Amazon.com; www.BarnesandNoble.com

By the same author: "Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935" (National Geographic); "Plymouth and Washington County" (Arcadia Publishing).

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "MIDDLE GEORGIA BOOKSHELF: "For Sale - American Paradise: How Americans Were Sold an Impossible Dream in Florida" ."