Shirley Shreidell, a book lover

Shirley Schreidell was a retired high school English teacher who worked 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. Her first request was the book Blue Boy by Jean Giorno. After I handed her a copy from a stack on a shelf, she laughed about it being there and we became friends.

After that day she became a weekly regular, a person who enjoyed her reading and valued privacy. Shirley lived around the corner, in a small neat one bedroom apartment in Lincoln Towers. She’d often call with classics to order by Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, Trollop, Turgenev, and many others. But Shirley was more worldly than her quite book-life would assume.

Shirley was a devoted and passionate opera fan, and spent almost her entire life savings following Pavarotti in concerts around the world. Her favorite place to visit was the city of Salzburg, Austria, the home of her beloved Mozart. She became known in elite Opera circles as the mysterious red-headed woman that handed Pavarotti a bouquet of red roses after every performance, and he later acknowledged her in his autobiography.

Recently I bumped into an old friend of Shirley’s who passed on to me her personal copies of a Joseph Roth series that follows the Trotta family which began with The Radetzky March. Her friend reminded me Shirley’s unusual quirk. She had an obsessive devotion to sports and sporting events. Shirley was equally passionate about tennis, pugilism, football, baseball, hockey, all Olympic sporting games and auto racing, never missing a major event or competition. Shirley could carry on long conversations and quote statistics on players and past games, she loved the competitive action and physical aspect of any sport, as much as she loved reading or the opera.

Shirley had a rich and secretive personal life, meeting and corresponding long-distance with those she met during her travels. One extended episode included an adventure with the American Oulipo writer Harry Mathews, whom she met in Paris. They became a clique of two and traveled around Europe together and shared a horse-drawn carriage ride through Vienna. She seemed a little upset after reading Mathews books, it just didn’t add up to who he was.

Shirley’s reading list was the best of great writing. From conversations, letters, and requests through the years, she helped build and shape the spirit and content of Book Beat. Our reading group begun in the late 1990s, grew out of conversations with Shirley, but she was never interested in sharing her thoughts in a live group setting.

In 2008, I asked Shirley to compile a list of her favorite top ten books. She wrote back in a letter and said, “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

Shirley had a son who was an attorney living in Los Angeles, California, and she would fly out to visit him yearly. During the holidays she would always send the staff of Book Beat a box of “the best” chocolate truffles from her special chocoalte shop in Beverly Hills, California. During her last few years, Shirley had become physically too frail to travel and legally blind. She no longer could read or enjoy her operas, but her mind and memories were sharp as a tack.

Our friend Sharon Zimmerman befriended Shirley when she worked at Book Beat, and as Shirley aged, Sharon took care of her daily affairs and was closer to her than any living relative. Loosing her eyesight was the worst tragedy. Being surrounded by books she could no longer read was painful. For some reason she refused to listen to books on tape–it just wasn’t the same, and she even stopped listening to her classical music and opera record collection she revered.

Sharon helped her move into a Jewish assisted living apartment but she didn’t stay long. Shirley died on April 17, 2020 at the age of 96. We don’t know if it was Covid, but the service was held at the cemetery with her dearest friends present, masked and six feet apart. We love her memory and think of her often.

I regret not writing down more of Shirley’s comments and book suggestions. She was one of liveliest, worldly, and most intelligent and educated women I’ve known. She lived life to the fullest and beyond. Her list of books are a guide to an educated life. There should be an opera written about red-headed Shirley. She was a heroic adventuress in life and books, a lion-hearted woman.

Here are Shirley’s favorite books, along with her comments about them on our Bookshop affiliate page: Shirley Schreidell’s Top Ten

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12 comments on “Shirley Shreidell, a book lover
  1. Shirley was always so warm, interesting, and lovely to me. I loved talking with her and always leaped at the chance to go and drop off books to her when she lived around the corner and I was working a shift at Book Beat! She lived a fascinating, extraordinary life. I’m so grateful to have spent time with her, Thank you, Shirley. I’ll miss you! Xoxoxox. And thank you, Sharon Z. For all your care and kindness xoxoxox— Tiffany D.

  2. Thank you. She loved you and your store. There are no words to describe how much Sharon Zimmerman helped Aunt Shirley.

  3. I loved my aunt Shirley deeply. I will be at her funeral and have a passage to share with all about her love for family and the arts, but your beautiful words meant so much and I’m grateful for your dedication and longevity during Shirley’s life.

  4. I love what you wrote about my Aunt Shirley. There will never be anyone like her. She was by far the smartest person I ever knew in my entire life. She knew I loved to read and was thrilled to send me lists almost four times a year of the books that she had just read. And whenever she couldn’t make it to New York to go to the Metropolitan Opera — she gave the tickets to me. This really is a beautiful tribute.

  5. Thank you so very much for this wonderful tribute to my Aunt Shirley. My three children always looked forward to receiving a special book on their birthdays from their great great Aunt Shirley . They were always hand picked by my aunt with advice from the wonderful Book Beat staff.
    Whenever we visited Detroit from Chicago my Aunt would always bring my three children to the Book Beat to spoil them with a new book. My children are now fully grown but will always have this wonderful memory of their Aunt Shirley and The Book Beat.
    Thank you again for your kind words.

  6. Thanks Michael, I feel we owe so much to your Aunt — she was a mentor to many of us. I talked with her about two or three weeks ago and planned on seeing her as soon as possible… she sounded clear as a bell and lively as ever. I’m so sorry she’s gone.

    • Thank you again Cary.
      Just an FYI.
      My family just ordered from your online list of my Aunt Shirley’s top ten favorite book list as a Tribute to my Aunt’s memory and to also support your store.

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