On a trip from Mississippi to Pennsylvania aboard her parents’ bright yellow mobile home in 1999, 3-year-old Emily Liner sat at a dining table that could also fold out into a bed, books laid out in front of her. Her mother, Terry Waltman, often volunteered teaching children to read and had already taught Liner to read on her own. Books became a constant in Liner’s life, which came in handy on the many moves her family made due to her father, J.D. Liner’s work as a traveling representative of a labor union.
That day, Liner picked up a new book, Jon Stone’s “The Monster at the End of This Book.” The book stars “Sesame Street” character Grover, who sees the book’s title and begins attempting to prevent the reader from getting to the end of the book and seeing the titular monster.
“All throughout the book Grover keeps making obstacles trying to keep you from finishing the book, and he reacts every time you keep turning the page,” Liner says. “He’s trying to stop you because he thinks the monster will be too scary, but he doesn’t realize the monster at the end of the book is actually him all along. It’s a fun and effective story that’s always stuck with me, and it’s fun to read out loud with a child.”
As an adult, Liner committed herself to teaching families the importance of keeping a home library and reading together as her mother did with her and other children. In 2020, shortly after moving to Columbus, Miss., Liner witnessed the closure of a local Books a Million that had previously operated out of the Leigh Mall in Columbus for decades. Not wishing to see her community go without a bookstore, Liner stepped up and opened her own bookstore, Friendly City Books, in November that year.
After opening, Liner began partnering with the Jackson-based Mississippi Book Festival to host an event series called “Reading the Room,” which allows visitors to mingle and read together before taking home free copies of books featured at each year’s book festival. Friendly City Books has also hosted more than 100 reading-related community events with authors from across Mississippi.
This year, Liner plans to expand the scope of her literary efforts through a new event called the Possum Town Book Fest, which is set to take place on Aug. 24 at the Columbus Arts Council (501 Main St., Columbus, Miss.).
‘The Love of Books and Reading’
Friendly City Books is hosting the Possum Town Book Fest in partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council, as well as the Friendly City Books Community Connection. The FCBCC is a nonprofit organization Liner launched in 2023 through the Create Foundation, a Mississippi-based community foundation that provides organizational and administrative support for nonprofit organizations in the state.
Liner intends for Possum Town to be a day to celebrate books, reading and literature in Columbus and beyond. The event, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 24, is free to attend and will feature a dozen authors from across Mississippi hosting panels and book signings throughout the day, as well as children’s programming and booths for local authors to sell their books.
Liner will also host a “Reading the Room” event during the festival in partnership with Mississippi University for Women’s Community Read program, during which she will give away copies of “First Gen: A Memoir” by Alejandra Campoverdi. Friendly City Books will release a full list of participating authors in the coming weeks.
The name “Possum Town” for the festival is derived from the Choctaw name for the trading-post settlement that became Columbus more than 200 years ago, Liner says.
“‘Possum Town’ is a nickname that’s grown in popularity in recent years, and I thought it would be a great tribute,” Liner says. “I think the name sets the tone for the event because saying it just brings a smile to my face, and we want to share that sense of fun and the love of books and reading with everyone who comes here.”
‘Matching People to a Book They’ll Love’
Liner and her staff at Friendly City Books stake their pride as a local bookstore on getting to know their customers personally and making personalized recommendations just for them, she says. Liner also uses Friendly City Books Community Connection to bring local authors such as Angie Thomas to local public schools to give children a chance to meet authors they may come to see as role models and take their books home with them.
“It’s important to promote Mississippi authors and creators so kids can see people like them, people from here in our state, be successful. On top of ‘The Monster at the End of This Book’ I also loved ‘Sesame Street’ as a kid, and its creator, Jim Henson, is from Mississippi. It means a lot that someone from here created an entire world that entertained so many children.”
Liner also promotes different ways to read at Friendly City, sharing audio books and cell phone-based library apps along with printed literature to give people as many options as possible to find something that works for them.
“I was an early reader as a child, and it was something that came easily and naturally for me, but that isn’t always the case for everyone,” Liner says. “At Friendly City we believe that not only should reading be fun and enjoyable, but that people shouldn’t feel like they have to read what others around them are reading or what they’re told to read at school or in college. We believe in matching people to a book they’ll love, and that’s something that’s just as important for adults as it is for children.”
For more information on Friendly City Books, call 662-570-4247 or visit friendlycitybooks.com.
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