Mary Alice Riley has long been a reader.
So when she heard about the a statewide read-books-by-Nebraska-authors endeavor, she said, why not?
“One could read six books, or 12, or 42,†Mary Alice said last week. “And I read 42.â€
And then the retired music teacher went one step further.
“I wrote 42 summations and handed them to the woman who works at the Heritage Room at the library.â€
Hoist your Nebraska flag (right side up) if you’ve read 42 books by Nebraska authors in the past six months. Or in your entire born-and-raised-in-Nebraska lifetime.
I didn’t think so.
Meet Mary Alice from Michigan, who has. Discovering John Neihardt and Ted Kooser, reveling in Willa Cather and Tillie Olsen, delighting in the words of Paul Johnsgard and Mary Pipher, inspired by Joe Starita’s tale of Standing Bear and Malcolm X’s autobiography.
People are also reading…
A woman who introduced her summaries — tucked into a black binder complete with corollary news clippings — this way: This is a state to be held priceless and treasured … I am so pleased to help honor my new state ...
A sharp-eyed reader who did not mince words in her two-sentence summaries. (Let’s just say someone hates you, Old Jules. Poor chickasaw, you are an ugly little bird. The 40 Nebraska poets in that anthology? Ten of you make the grade.)
Mary Alice arrived here from Florida in May, where she and her now-late husband had moved after he retired 16 years ago. The harpist and piano teacher finally retired herself last year and landed in the Saratoga Building at Eastmont Towers on O Street — happy to be in the same city as her only son and his family.
“I’ve lived in six other states,†she says. “And there is no state like this. My neighbors are all so engaged and I was so impressed with everyone knowing so much about the state — and loving their poetry.â€
And it happened that one of those neighbors was participating in the Nebraska 150 Challenge.
“I gave up after six,†Jan Jewett said. “But Mary Alice was really inspired, I think.â€
The new-to-Nebraska resident bought books and borrowed books and drove to Bennett Martin Library downtown to read the hard-to-find and not-to-be-checked-out children’s book, “Sister Sweet Ella,†by Rosekrans Hoffman.
And bit by bit, she began learning about this place and its people.
“I never knew about George Norris.â€
“I hadn’t known much about Malcolm X, and that book changed me.â€
“‘Hector’s Bliss,’ about black homesteaders at Goose Lake, that was my favorite. It was gorgeous writing, just gorgeous.â€
She loved “A Cycle of the West†by Neihardt. And “The Swan Gondola†by Timothy Schaffert. “The Meaning of Names†by Karen Gettert Shoemaker. And every word Kooser wrote.
“There were four books that I checked out a second time,†she says. “Because there was just so much information.â€
When she got to her final book, she began reading aloud, so she could savor every word.
Mary Alice's son, Mark Riley, remembers his mother mentioning her wordy goal during one of her Sunday night supper visits.
“We thought if she got halfway through, that would be quite an accomplishment.â€
But every Sunday she’d return, having read another book, sometimes two, raving about the poets and early settlers' life on the Plains.
“One night my wife, Jill, and I looked at each other and thought, ‘She’s going to make it.’â€
His mother had always read, her son says. Tackling massive tomes like Michener and always stressing the importance of learning.
She approached the challenge as a way to learn more about Nebraska. “She’d not spent much time here besides visiting me and my family.â€
And now she knows more than most.
“She would come in here and read,†said Erin Willis, curator of the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room. “She was just thrilled with the opportunity to learn more about Nebraska literature.â€
Only 33 readers in the state completed all 42 books, the curator said, and Mary Alice’s name was not drawn from the prize basket March 1. (Congratulations, Anne Komar of Omaha!)
But in the end, she did it for the joy of it all.
And she had help, Mary Alice said. She was inspired by the Eastmont Towers librarian. By her neighbors who loaned books and encouragement — many of them once teachers and professors, all of them interesting and intellectually stimulating.
One of those neighbors, Betty Hofstad, took it upon herself to call the newspaper with a story tip about her reading neighbor.
“We are all just very impressed,†Betty said. “She’s just quite a remarkable person.â€
And somewhere in her apartment, that remarkable person has that longer reading list from which the 42 were chosen — 150 books in honor of the 150th anniversary of Nebraska, her newly adopted state.
She plans to throw it away.
“My next goal is to explore,†she said. “I haven’t even walked into the Capitol yet.â€