Shirley Schreidell’s Top Ten

By Book Beat

Shirley Schreidell was a retired high school teacher in the Detroit school system. She was the first customer at Book Beat when we opened in late August of 1982, and for that we are grateful. When she first walked into the store, she asked, "Do you Blue Boy by John Girono?" We had several copies faced out, and ever since that day, Shirley and I become friends.

Shirley’s top ten reading list is the essence of all great writing, or as Henry Thoreau would say, the treasured wealth of the world... From her presence, conversations and requests over the years, she helped build and shape the spirit and content of the bookstore.

One day in 2008, when we began to write online for the store, I asked Shirley to compile a list of her favorite books. In her own words, “I have so many loves, just Dickens could almost fill the list…. I omit some lengthy choices like Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, (a page-turner!); Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet; Trollop’s He Knew He Was Right, and probably the greatest novel, War and Peace...Whoops! I knew ten would not be enough. How about plays? or short stories? or memoirs? I have loads of loves there, too. Bestest, Shirley”

In the past few years, Shirley had become physically frail, and legally blind. She no longer read or enjoyed her operas, but her mind and memories were sharp and intact. Our friend and former employee Sharon Zimmerman took care of Shirley's daily affairs and was closer to her than any living relative. Shirley died on April 16, 2020 at the age of 96. She was the patron saint of Book Beat and we love her dearly. All comments beside the books below were written by Shirley Shreidell. Additional books to her top ten were added because ten "would not be enough..."

The Three Musketeers: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Alexandre Dumas

$21.00 $19.32

Alexander Dumas, the greatest adventure tale of all time!

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

$8.00 $7.36

Charles Dickens, the first paragraph and the final page are two of the most famous passages in all of literature. The plot in between ain’t bad either!

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens and Coralie Bickford-Smith

$24.00 $22.08

Charles Dickens, the first paragraph and the final page are two of the most famous passages in all of literature. The plot in between ain’t bad either!

Great Expectations (Revised)

Charles Dickens

$11.00 $10.12

Also by Dickens with his usual array of unforgettable characters (e.g. Miss Haversham in her bridal finery, sitting at the table with the mice-infested cake, and the clock on the wall, stopped at the hour she was jilted long ago!) Like Shakespeare and Tolstoy, Dickens creates great characters!

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens and Coralie Bickford-Smith

$25.00 $23.00

Cousin Bette (Revised)

Honoré de Balzac

$16.00

My favorite Balzac novel of a poor cousin’s revenge against her wealthy relatives.

Cheri and the Last of Cheri

Colette

$18.00 $16.56

Two novellas by Colette, sensuous writing! A middle-aged courtesan trains a 19 year old boy about life and love, ah me, what an opera this would have made with a score by, say, Massenet or Puccini!

McTeague

Frank Norris

$7.95

Naturalistic style, bare bones dialogue, one of the gloomiest endings ever!

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Tennessee Williams

$15.95

Tennessee Williams’ lone novel, with his usual sad, neurotic females this one adrift in Rome.

The Last Hurrah

Edwin O'Connor

$18.00

This is an election year. Why not a political novel? This one is excellent and I laughed for 427 pages!

The Leopard

Giuseppe Di Lampedusa

$16.95 $15.59

Published posthumously in 1958, this novel is a throw-back to the great 19th century tradition in style. Beautifully written, it is the story of a 19th century Sicilian prince who watches, powerlessly, as his island country slides into what Sicily would become and from which it has still not recovered.

The Death of Napoleon

Simon Leys

$14.00

What if the real Napoleon had escaped from St. Helena leaving a double in his place? This could be read as a fable or the nature of greatness or identity or just for fun. A Delight!