ESMA issues a negative opinion on an Accepted Market Practice on liquidity contracts proposed by the French AMF
ESMA issues a negative opinion on an Accepted Market Practice on liquidity contracts proposed by the French AMF

ESMA considers that the new AMP, applicable as of 1 July 2021, replacing the current AMP on liquidity contracts, applicable since 1 January 2019, is not compatible with the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and the relevant Implementing Regulation, and it is also diverging from ESMA’s 2017 Opinion on Points for Convergence.

In its assessment, ESMA has identified several points of concerns. Those are the absence of limits on positions and the presence of volume and resources limits which are significantly higher compared to that recommended in the 2017 ESMA Opinion on Points for Convergence.

ESMA must issue its opinion, which is not binding, within two months of the notification, which was received on 31 March 2021. Should the AMF decide to establish its AMP contrary to the ESMA Opinion, it will have to publish on its website the relevant reasons, including why the AMF believes that the AMP does not threaten market confidence.

Children’s Book Combines the Wisdom of the Talmud with the Ancient Poetry of Rumi
Children’s Book Combines the Wisdom of the Talmud with the Ancient Poetry of Rumi

It’s‌ ‌not‌ ‌every‌ ‌day‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌sages‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Talmud‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌ancient‌ ‌Persian‌ ‌poet,‌ ‌Rumi,‌ ‌cross‌ ‌paths.‌ That’s‌ ‌why‌ ‌I‌ ‌was‌ ‌so‌ ‌thrilled‌ ‌to‌ ‌read‌ ‌“The‌ ‌Adventures‌ ‌of‌ ‌Rumi‌ ‌and‌ ‌Baruch‌ ‌Bear,” ‌a‌ ‌vividly‌ ‌charming‌ ‌new‌ ‌children’s‌ ‌book‌ ‌by‌ ‌Yehuda‌ ‌Rothstein.‌

It’s‌ ‌also‌ ‌not‌ ‌every‌ ‌day‌ ‌that‌ ‌the‌ ‌main‌ ‌character‌ ‌of‌ ‌a‌ ‌Jewish‌ ‌children’s‌ ‌book‌ ‌is‌ ‌an‌ ‌Iranian‌ ‌Jewish‌ ‌girl, especially when so many of these books depict Ashkenazi characters, Ashkenazi villages, and disproportionate references to, what else? Matzo balls.

The book begins by introducing a young girl named Rumi as she gazes out of a window in her room in Tehran. Yes, Jews live all over the world, even in Iran, and in recognizing this important fact, Rothstein demonstrates his transparent passion to shine a light on the beautiful diversity of global Jewry.

On Rumi’s wall is a drawing of the tombs of Esther and Mordechai in the northern Iranian city of Hamadan. On her desk: computer screen, a keyboard, and a book titled “C++ Computer Programming.” As my eyes caught sight of the dark-haired Rumi (accompanied by her imaginary companion, Baruch Bear)—who seems to own her Jewish identity, Iranian roots, and yes, the study of computer science—I realized how much I already like this unique little girl.

The book, which is meant for children seven years and older, follows Rumi as she tries to “understand the questions of her heart.” She is guided by her loving mother, grandparents, and her great-grandfather, as well as teachers and friends. “One day,” the reader learns at the beginning of the story, “Iran was no longer safe for Rumi and her family.” These are exactly the same words I use to describe my family’s escape from Iran when I tell the story to my young children.

Rumi’s family resettles in New York and she admits that she’s afraid to attend school because of a stutter, worrying that no one will understand her. In highlighting Rumi’s stutter, Rothstein again compassionately breaks out of the mold of most Jewish “kid lit” (children’s literature)—especially picture books—by presenting a little girl’s struggles in direct parallel with her fears and potential.

tabby rumi illustration
An illustration from the book

“Moses himself was a stutterer and accomplished great things after overcoming many different challenges,” Rothstein told the Journal. “I wanted Rumi to stutter because I wanted her to be different beyond just her Persian ethnicity in an Ashkenazi environment; a stutter is really a metaphor for what we all go through in life. We all try to strive in a way that moves forward our life agenda, but we often take missteps. We make mistakes, we say the wrong things—we stutter. Accepting ourselves, but at the same time, moving forward and growing, is part of life.”

Rothstein succeeds in creating an endearing compromise between telling a simple story about a girl who wishes to find her place in the world and rendering Talmudic wisdom (and the delicious poetry of Rumi) digestible for children. In fact, “The Adventures of Rumi and Baruch Bear” offers such a treasure trove of wisdom that adult readers will be hard-pressed to ignore its sage advice. When Rumi’s mother speaks harshly to her for hesitating to attend school, her grandfather intervenes, echoing the poet Rumi by advising, “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

This is precisely how Rothstein manages to offer such complex poetic wisdom: eloquent counsel is offered by characters as a response to Rumi’s struggles to make friends and forge her own path. Even Baruch Bear espouses wisdom, such as when he responds to Rumi’s question about whether she will grow up to have a lot of friends: “All I can say is this: Who is wise? She who learns from others,” say Baruch Bear, quoting Pirkei Avot 4:1 (“Ethics of our Fathers”), while adding, “But do not blindly follow the stories of others that came before you” (wisdom from the poet, Rumi).

It’s time for a children’s picture book as vivid and inclusive as “The Adventures of Rumi and Baruch Bear.” I wish I had had the poet Rumi’s words, decades ago after I first came to the United States, to soothe me each time I felt anxiety about attending my new American school. I was especially drawn to a conversation in the book in which Rumi’s mother reassures her, “Ever since the dawn of your life, friendship heard your name and it has been running through the courtyard trying to catch you. You must let it.”

How’s that for soothing? Yes, if only “The Adventures of Rumi and Baruch Bear” had existed when I was a child. While I deeply yearned for friends, sometimes I felt as though the only person who ever tried to catch me was Ayatollah Khomeini (and Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War).

“The Adventures of Rumi and Baruch Bear” is Rothstein’s first children’s book. A New York-based transactional real estate and construction law attorney, he previously was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where he lectured on Comparative Islamic and Jewish Law. Rothstein specializes in Muslim-Jewish relations and in 2017 was appointed a board member of the New York Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (he also served as a Broome Fellow of Muslim-Jewish Relations at the American Sephardic Federation in New York City). He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish-Muslim Sourcebook Project, which works with the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement at the University of Southern California. Rothstein is also a World Jewish Congress delegate and a real estate investor.

Rothstein grew up in Monsey, New York, home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the country, and studied Talmud and Jewish studies for more than six hours a day at an all-boys yeshiva.

“In Monsey, the average family had five or six kids. And so everyone, including the men, learned a lot about children, how to nurture them, and to value them and appreciate family more generally,” he said. “It’s a very different world than most readers probably know.”

But growing up in Monsey, Rothstein seldom found depictions of Jews that closely mirrored him and his family. “I come from a diverse multicultural and multiracial Jewish background, and as a child, I didn’t see depictions of what we call Jews of Color or Mizrahi Jews in textbooks or learn about the rich history and diversity of our people,” he said. In elementary school, Rothstein saw handouts featuring cartoon pictures of Moses, Aaron, and other Jews in the Torah. “They all looked Ashkenazi and Haredi,” he recalled. “Moses and all of the Children of Israel who followed him into the desert were wearing shtreimels (fur hats worn by Hasidic men) and long coats.”

Rothstein remembers being taught that even Jewish scholars were only Ashkenazi. “Not only were all the biblical characters depicted as Ashkenazi, but all the heroes, all the great rabbis of history, were, too,” he said. “I remember my teachers saying to me that all the great rabbinical scholars or gedolim (great rabbis) of history were Ashkenazi Jews. I was told that there weren’t any great rabbinical figures in the Mizrahi world.”

But Rothstein believes that excluding Sephardic, Mizrahi, and others Jews of Color isn’t only a challenge in the Haredi world. “It isn’t only a problem relegated to the Orthodox world; it was true even in my secular Judaic Studies classes in university,” he said. “It occurs in Reform and Conservative circles I’ve traveled in, too. It’s a larger problem in American Jewry, and something that we need to repair in our culture. My book is a humble attempt to address this issue.”

Still, he doesn’t think of himself as “one kind of a Jew or another kind of Jew, or Ashkenazi Jew or Sephardic Jew. I’m just Jewish, and so I look at every single Jewish communal experience as part of my story.”

Still, he doesn’t think of himself as “one kind of a Jew or another kind of Jew, or Ashkenazi Jew or Sephardic Jew. I’m just Jewish, and so I look at every single Jewish communal experience as part of my story.”

Rothstein was especially influenced by his friendship with an elderly Iranian Jewish man named Shlomo Sakhai, who passed away in 2019 in New York. “He was a real hero and humble leader of Iranian Jewry, and one of the most generous but unassuming people I’ve ever met,” Rothstein recalled. “Shlomo was an orphan child in Isfahan, selling matches on the street corner as an eight-year-old boy. A deeply spiritual man who was focused on helping the community, he became one of the leaders of Iranian Jewry, a bridge-builder and peacemaker. He secretly gave charity to his neighbors, both Jewish and Muslim, and even adopted an orphan Muslim child that he raised as his own. When he died, Muslims in Tehran set up a mourning tent.”

Rothstein spent many Shabbat and holidays with Sakhai, where he learned the particulars of Persian culture: “I knew from my experiences with Shlomo that Rumi’s words and ideas are on the lips and heart of every literate Persian. But likewise, the words of Torah were also on his lips, and on the elders of the community, at all times. And so, I thought, it would be interesting to marry the wisdom of Rumi and the wisdom of the Talmud together, much in a way that they came together in someone like Shlomo.”

The illustrations by Nasim Jenabi, a non-Jewish Iranian immigrant who resides in Canada, are particularly striking. “I think the best part of this book is Nasim’s art,” Rothstein said. Jenabi demonstrates an instinct for drawing characters and scenes in ways that truly capture the richness of the Mizrahi Jewish experience: an artistic print on a little boy’s skullcap; a circa-1920s picture on a wall in Rumi’s house that shows fez-clad Iranian Jewish men gathered at a meeting of the Zionist Federation; Rumi and her family at the Shabbat dinner table, surrounded by heaping plates of gondi (an Iranian Shabbat specialty consisting of ground chicken, chickpea, and cardamom meatballs). There’s something almost mystical about Jenabi’s illustrations. Together with the text, this is a book I am deeply proud to show my own children.

“The Iranian Jewish story is really part of one of the first diaspora communities, and its contributions to world Jewry are immeasurable,” Rothstein said, adding, “How is it possible that there are so many Persian Jews in the United States and there is little to nothing about them in our textbooks and cultural centers? How is it that everybody knows about matzo balls, but not gondi balls as a delicacy on Shabbat?”

Rothstein also created a website where readers can download a free parent and teacher guidebook to facilitate discussion with children. “The Talmud says that each child is a clean, smooth piece of paper ready to be inscribed with all the potential of the world, as opposed to us adults who are likened to crinkled sheets of paper,” he said. “If we educate our children correctly, as children’s books have the potential to do, then they will adhere to those values when they are adults and we are gone.”

His commitment to ensuring that Jews around the world know and appreciate diverse Jewish customs is deeply inspiring: “We are taught that a Torah that is missing even a single letter isn’t kosher,” he said. “Our people belong to a single body. How can the left hand not learn about the right? If we don’t show the diversity of our people, then we are missing a part of ourselves.”


Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker and civic action activist. Follow her on Twitter @RefaelTabby

Seven book events to enjoy this week
Seven book events to enjoy this week

Whilst there’s a lot that lockdown has prevented us from doing, reading is certainly not on that list. If you’re looking for something new to read, this book launch might be just what you need. The online book launch of Very Much Alive: Stories of Resilience features author readings and musical performances to be enjoyed all from the comfort of your favourite reading spot.

10 April. Free (book can be purchased with your ticket). Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/very-much-alive-book-launch-tickets-141610736525?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Blake Bailey on Philip Roth with Matthew Klam

Appointed by Philip Roth himself and granted complete access to his personal archive, Blake Bailey has spent years interviewing Roth’s friends, colleagues and Roth himself. With numerous awards under his belt – including an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, alongside being shortlisted for the Pulitzer – it’s clear why Roth trusted Bailey to tell his story. If you’re interested in learning more about the life and work of Philip Roth, join this online event from Politics and Prose.

8 April. Free (book can be purchased with your ticket). Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pp-live-blake-bailey-philip-roth-with-matthew-klam-tickets-146667292821?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Holding Court with Alison Weir and Lucy Jago

For historical book fans, join Alison Weir and Lucy Jago as they talk about their novels. Jago’s A Net for Small Fishes has been described as one of the most gripping novels of the last year and is based on a true story. Alison Weir is the biggest-selling female historian in the UK and her series Six Tudor Queens earned her a spot on the Sunday Times-bestseller list.

8 April. Tickets from £5 (books can be purchased with your ticket at a discounted price). Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holding-court-with-alison-weir-and-lucy-jago-tickets-147834082721?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

The British Library: A Virtual Walk through the World’s Collective Memory

For everyone who misses getting to the library, this walk through of the British Library might fill the bookshelf shaped hole. Standing strong as the principal copyright library means it receives a copy of everything that’s published in both the UK and Ireland. What’s more, the library also serves as a museum, with some of the world’s most high-profile written documents on display including Shakespeare’s first folio and Jane Austen’s handwritten manuscripts. Alongside the tour, there will be a special guest to answer any burning questions.

6 April. Tickets form £10. Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-british-library-a-virtual-walk-through-the-worlds-collective-memory-tickets-145675325821?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Taking Stock: The Societal Impact of the 2020 Election

In the lead up to the release of the new book A Return to Normalcy: The 2020 Election That (Almost) Broke America, panelists for this event will be examining what 2020 taught us about the people who run for office in a highly polarised American and how such deep divisions might impact on the future. Panelists include Alan Abramowitz, a professor of Political Science at Emory University; David Byler, data analyst and political columnist for The Washington Post and Madelaine Pisani, a senate campaigns reporter for the National Journal.

8 April. Free. Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taking-stock-the-societal-impact-of-the-2020-election-tickets-146434901733?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

The Art of Fiction Writing with Marti Leimback

If any of the events from the week have got you inspired to try writing yourself, this talk from New York Times besseller Marti Leimbach is just what you need. Leimbach will share her thoughts on the literary habits you need as a writer, the art of writing fiction, as well as giving an insight into the life of a successful writer.

10 April. Tickets from £5. Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-of-fiction-writing-with-marti-leimbach-tickets-148199425471?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Virtual Tour – A Room of Ones Own: Virginia Woolf in London

Virginia Woolf had a home in London for almost all of her life, and this tour explores all the places Woolf called home in the city. In particular, the tour will take you to her four Bloomsbury homes, hearing about some of the books she wrote whilst living in Bloomsbury.

9 April. Tickets from £6. Online event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-tour-a-room-of-ones-own-virginia-woolf-in-london-tickets-140263705519?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Charlotte Cohen

The Dr. Seuss Empire Is Only Getting Bigger After Discontinued Books Send Sales Soaring
The Dr. Seuss Empire Is Only Getting Bigger After Discontinued Books Send Sales Soaring

On Tuesday morning, Seuss Enterprises, which handles the estate of Dr. Seuss, announced that it would discontinue six of its less popular titles due to racist imagery. None of the books—If I Ran the Zoo, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer—are Seuss bestsellers, and few thought the announcement would set off a culture war. But it did—and drove a stampede of buyers to booksellers. After all, if Dr. Seuss, who passed away in 1991, could earn $33 million last year, why shouldn’t shrewd collectors and Seuss lovers act like Horton and hatch a nest egg?

A day after the announcement of the cancellation, nine of the top 10 books on Amazon’s best-selling charts were by Dr. Seuss, though none were the six controversial titles. Those books are now much harder to get, and their prices on the secondary market have skyrocketed. On rare book site AbeBooks, first editions of And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street are going for up to $9,000, while If I Ran the Zoo is selling for $8,200. On Barnes & Noble, both titles are already out of stock. Rare and children’s bookstores, which typically get calls about The Cat in the Hat or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, have been handling increased requests for the six nixed titles.

“Fielding those calls was basically our entire day yesterday,” says Marissa Acey, a manager at New York City’s Book Culture. The store only had one copy of If I Ran the Zoo, she added, explaining that none of the titles listed were popular enough to keep in stock.

“We spent the whole day yesterday on the phone answering calls about Dr. Seuss,” adds Peter Glassman, the owner of New York City’s fabled children’s bookstore Books of Wonder. A lover of Dr. Seuss who contributed to the Your Favorite Seuss compilation, Glassman hopes the six books can be edited to remove the objectionable characters and illustrations. “Having met Ted [Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss], I think he would’ve been the first to say, ‘Just change it!’ … If these stories can be kept alive in a way that is not offensive, that would be wonderful.”

The surprising announcement by Seuss Enterprises followed a 2019 study by the Conscious Kid’s Library and the University of California-San Diego that found themes of orientalism and anti-Blackness in some of his books, and coincided with President Joe Biden excluding Seuss’ name from his Proclamation on Read Across America Day. Across conservative media, the titles were the latest victims of “cancel culture,” with Newsmax and Fox News hosts spending significant airtime on the matter. 

What they didn’t acknowledge is that these six books make up only a sliver of the Seuss library—and the money-making machine that that library has become. Seuss Enterprises earned a record $33 million before taxes in 2020, up from just $9.5 million five years earlier—thanks to a flurry of lucrative Hollywood deals, including Netflix.

“We put our big boy pants on,” Seuss Enterprises president Susan Brandt told Forbes last year, referring to the company’s business strategy. 

Brandt brought Seuss to Netflix, which turned the classic 50-word Green Eggs and Ham into a big-budget animated series. Season Two is currently in production there. That helped lead to a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to make two films based on The Cat in the Hat and a third based on Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. (All three of the titles are among the top 10 bestsellers on Amazon today). All of the TV and movie projects are still a go, despite The Cat in the Hat and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! being cited in the study as transmitting racist imagery, including the use of blackface stereotypes. A Black elevator operator working in Geisel’s office in the 1950s was even the inspiration for his iconic Cat character. Seuss Enterprises declined to comment on these books.

Presumably that’s the real reason why Seuss Enterprises preemptively self-canceled the books—to protect its other valuable intellectual property. After all, the company will collect seven-figure checks for the rights to use the source material in the films, plus bonuses depending on box-office performance Seuss has also taken live entertainment by storm: Once the world opens up again, the traveling Dr. Seuss exhibit will continue. During its five-month run in Toronto pre-pandemic, the show sold 175,000 tickets and $1 million in merchandise.

As for the soaring sales of his titles? Book sales made up more than $16 million of Seuss’ earnings last year. Even with six fewer titles in his catalog in 2021, expect that number to grow bigger than the Grinch’s heart.

Mrs. Keckley’s Book and Mrs. Lincoln’s Reaction
Mrs. Keckley’s Book and Mrs. Lincoln’s Reaction

It wasn’t enough that she was an ex-slave and a woman. It wasn’t enough that she was just a seamstress for Mary Todd Lincoln and became her confidant and best friend. It wasn’t enough when she wrote a book, she said, to support Mrs. Lincoln in her efforts to sell her old dresses.


But it was way too much when her 1868 book, Behind the Scenes, Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House became an expose of her “friendship” with Mrs. Lincoln.


The book had two major parts.


First, it was one of many slave narratives, tracing the injustices that Mrs. Elizabeth Keckley had suffered as a slave, including her rape and subsequent life as a “sex slave.” She records, to a degree, her indignant and harrowing experiences, including the terrible treatment by her masters and mistresses, and even her half-brother. While readers are told of her difficult fight to buy herself and her son, the book is a bit sketchy and limits her readers’ responses. Absent, for example, are the names of her owners. Mrs. Keckley excuses her “owners’ names” because it would be embarrassing to her perpetrators.


As a slave narrative, then, the book is only ordinary, with so many competing books on the market, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, far surpassing Mrs. Keckley’s in even the basics of sentimental and alarming detail. Although most slave narratives are quite sentimental, describing the many whippings, in great detail, and highlighting the harsh treatment slaves received, Mrs. Keckley’s book suffers from a lack of details about these actions.


Second, the other part of the book records her friendship and support of Mrs. Lincoln’s emotional state, her time with the Lincoln family, and reflections of the bond she had with Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Keckley soon earned the trust of Mrs. Lincoln, who called Mrs. Keckley “my best living friend.” Mrs. Keckley, for example, was there the night the Lincolns’ young son, Willie, died, watching over him as the President and First Lady were hosting a reception at the White House. The Lincolns periodically checked in on Willie who steadily got worse before succumbing to typhoid fever.


Mrs. Lincoln also requested that Mrs. Keckley be at her side while President Abraham Lincoln slowly succumbed to an assassin’s bullet. Realizing how much Mrs. Keckley meant to Mrs. Lincoln, one group frantically went to find Mrs. Keckley, only to get lost in the process.


Yet Mrs. Keckley was there for the First Lady’s grieving process, Mrs. Lincoln telling someone that Mrs. Keckley “watched faithfully by her side.”


But Mary Todd Lincoln was practically inconsolable. She once summarized her state of mind: “I had an ambition to be Mrs. President; that ambition has been gratified, and now I must step down from my pedestal.”


To Mrs. Keckley’s credit, she didn’t give up on the grieving widow while others criticized the First Lady for her months of grieving. In fact, Mrs. Lincoln extended the whole grieving process by wearing a widow’s habit for the rest of her life.


At the time, it seemed that nothing could break the bond between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley. But the publication of her book in 1868 did lasting damage to the relationship with Mrs. Lincoln. Particularly, the book’s publication so marred and so angered the First Lady that the friendship they once knew was no longer a bond that would not break. What Mrs. Keckley’s book said then created so deep a wound that it never healed.


One of Mrs. Lincoln’s contentions was the publication of the intimate letters between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley. Mrs. Keckley claimed that the publishers felt that the letters were “sensational” enough to “spice up” an otherwise dull tome. But Mrs. Keckley, in truth, had secured the letters from Mrs. Lincoln, creating lasting doubt on Mrs. Keckley’s story and purpose. But Mrs. Keckley’s retort was that she only wanted the public to know about Mrs. Lincoln’s financial problems.


Mary Todd Lincoln’s Many Debts Unknown to the President


Lincoln’s assassination had another effect that Mary Todd Lincoln hadn’t planned on. Prior to the awful night at Ford’s Theatre, Mrs. Lincoln had incurred a number of outstanding debts that she hadn’t told her husband about, hiding the costs in the gardener’s account and budget. Lincoln was not in favor of the many projects that Mrs. Lincoln had for the White House.


In fact, Lincoln pooh-poohed Mrs. Lincoln’s attempt to re-do the White House, labeling her efforts a “bunch of flubadubs,” using good money, he reasoned, that could better go to the troops. But she paid little attention and routinely exceeded the amount of money in charges at elite stores in New York and Boston. While Congress had allotted certain monies for the “freshening” of the people’s house, she continued to spend extravagantly and thoughtlessly, despite Congress and her husband’s efforts to stop her.


Now those bills had come due and she was without enough money to pay them.


The Old Clothes Scandal


But now, Congress balked at paying the bills. Realizing her fate, Mrs. Lincoln had to come up with some money-making method of paying all the bills. She hit upon the idea of selling the old dresses she had worn during her term as First Lady. She imagined that many of Lincoln’s admirers would jump at the chance of buying them. To assist her, she and Mrs. Keckley again went to New York to find someone to mastermind the sale.


Yet, the whole scheme soon leaked to the press, whose relationship with Mrs. Lincoln was tenuous at best. The press often called her the “rebel in the White House.” There were even hints in the press that she also was a “spy,” who had leaked information that would be helpful to the Confederacy.


But the sales of the used dresses went nowhere, a ploy in the end that cost money instead of earning any.


She again asked Congress for more and more money, funds that Congress soon found to be unnecessary and ultimately denied the requests. Part of their reaction could be traced to her attitude. She boasted that President Lincoln, the dead martyred President, “saw my rich dresses and [was] happy to believe that the few hundred dollars that I obtain[ed] from him supply all my wants.”


At the same time, Mrs. Lincoln received some good news about her finances when she found a friend in Judge Dan Davis, who arranged for her to receive an inheritance that made the former First Lady financially comfortable. In spite of the money given to Mrs. Lincoln, she designated none for Mrs. Keckley to help deal with Mrs. Keckley’s indebtedness for material that Mrs. Keckley herself had charged, expecting to be paid back. Mrs. Lincoln seemed to have forgotten her “best friend” amid her financial recovery and would not deign to give her seamstress any of the money.


But money wasn’t the only slight Mrs. Keckley suffered.


When Mrs. Keckley’s book was published, the public began to view Mrs. Lincoln in a more focused light. It quickly became a kind of guidebook for Mrs. Lincoln’s uncontrolled disposition. In Mrs. Keckley’s book, Mrs. Lincoln was often portrayed as a petulant, self-centered, narcissistic person—traits that Mrs. Lincoln did not display openly to the entire world. But Mrs. Keckley’s book revealed many particular instances; for example, the publication of intimate letters between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley provided the specific examples that the press only knew in part. In fact, the letters verified to the press that some of their own misgivings about the First Lady were true.


Mrs. Lincoln sought answers about her suspicions of Mrs. Keckley, convincing herself that she was the object of terrible cruelty. Mrs. Lincoln then saw a sinister side to the publication of the Mrs. Keckley-Lincoln letters and quickly reached conclusions about Mrs. Keckley’s reasons for including the letters. In fact, Mrs. Lincoln remarked that she now “understood” what “evil” use the letters served.


Now, Mrs. Lincoln felt “betrayed,” likening it to the gross insult she had received from Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, who told Mary Todd about the Abe Lincoln-Ann Rutledge romance in New Salem, Illinois, when Lincoln was a resident there.


Feeling deeply hurt, Mrs. Lincoln then called Mrs. Keckley “that colored historian.” The former First Lady maintained that Mrs. Keckley had no right whatsoever to relate the events that transpired at the White House. Others said Mrs. Keckley was nothing but a “gossip monger.” One critic accused Mrs. Keckley of imposing herself in the everyday life of the Lincoln family, using that as a “cover” for the close friendship between the First Lady and Mrs. Keckley merely to gain information about the Lincolns. A reviewer even called Mrs. Keckley a ‘treacherous creature,” while another said that the lesson of the experience was that educating blacks was “a dangerous act.”


To many, then, Mrs. Keckley—an ex-slave at that—had described to the world what went on in the White House in her “tell-all” book. It was way beyond good taste in their view.


Robert Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln’s son, convinced the publisher to halt production of the embarrassing work, but it was again published to low sales in the early 1900s.


Ardently arguing her case, Mrs. Keckley tried to explain that she, too, had been duped by her publisher, but to no avail. She again tried to defend the book as a way to spur sales and alert the public of Mrs. Lincoln’s financial condition. Mrs. Keckley put it more gently and thought that Mrs. Lincoln “labored under pecuniary embarrassment.”


Apparently, Mrs. Lincoln remained cautious of Mrs. Keckley’s intentions and continued to believe that Mrs. Keckley had “betrayed” her.


The deep and abiding friendship and trust they once enjoyed had been destroyed.


And Mrs. Lincoln’s response to the entire relationship, whether intended or not, followed the script that Mary Todd Lincoln seems to have written for herself.



Dr. Marshall Myers, 313 Dylan Court, Richmond, KY 40475

DKG’s ’The Book Club’ continues to meet by Zoom
DKG’s ’The Book Club’ continues to meet by Zoom


A book club that is associated with the membership of Alpha Delta Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG) of Washington Court House simply named “The Book Club” is composed of 10 DKG members, including Marie Fetters, Cassandra Furlong, Nancy Mowery, Sandy Sowash, Susan Stuckey, Kim Bonnell, Dianne Junk, Debra Wing, Christy Eckstein, and Cathy White.

The Book Club was formally established in October of 2013. The club currently meets on the fourth Monday of the month and due to the pandemic has been meeting by Zoom in recent months. The club has found that there are advantages to meeting by Zoom.

The two members, Marie Fetters and Cassandra Furlong, who now live out of state can meet with us in person on a regular basis. Another advantage is the connection and friendship with Suzanne Lucey, the owner of the “Page 158 Books,” a book store in North Carolina. The club was introduced to Suzanne by DKG member Marie Fetters, who now lives in North Carolina.

Suzanne visited the book club by Zoom this past October when they decided to read “One Good Mama Bone,” by Bren McClain for the next meeting in November. Suzanne Lucey arranged for the author to visit with the club in person during the Zoom meeting on Nov. 23. It was a delightful meeting with wonderful insightful discussion with Bren about her book. It was interesting to hear her tell how her life experiences and interactions with others reflect in her writing.

Bren McClain grew up on 72-acre cattle farm near Anderson, South Carolina which was a great influence throughout her book One Good Mama Bone. She earned a BA in English from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She wrote for her local newspaper in Anderson, worked in radio and television, taught high school English for one year, and had a career in media relations before becoming a full-time writer.

Bren has won several writing awards, including the 2017 Will Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the 2019 Patricia Win Award for Southern Fiction, and the Great Book Reads by Women’s National Book Association. She is now working on her next book, “Took,” that also includes farm animals, which should be published within a year to a year and a half and has already won the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Prize for a Novel in Progress. Bren said she hopes to visit the club in person by the time Took is available. The Book Club can’t wait!

The Book Club is also looking forward to its continued friendship with Suzanne Lucey and her promise to bring new book titles and introduce us to other authors to visit in the future to discuss their books. In dark and difficult times opportunities often present themselves. In dark clouds there can be silver linings.

Delta Kappa Gamma is a sorority of professional women educators.

Best book subscription boxes in the UK
Best book subscription boxes in the UK
It wouldn’t be particularly insightful of us to guess that many of you made a New Year’s resolution to read more this year. But between finding the time to research what books to add to your list and actually buying them, these good intentions often go out of the window.

This is where a book subscription comes in handy. Whether you’re into young adult adventures or the latest crime thrillers, there’s a company out there that will select books to suit your tastes, package them up – often with extra treats – and send them to you every quarter or once a month. An added bonus is that many of them also host online forums, so you can chat with a community of people reading the same thing – like a book club for the internet age.

Choosing from the hordes of book subscription boxes out there can be somewhat daunting but luckily for you, we’ve done all the hard work and compiled our favourites in a list.

Your first reading assignment of the year: choose the one that takes your fancy.

Books That Matter

A relatively new one, the Books That Matter box is run by a team of women whose mission is to educate and enrich readers through exciting female fiction. Each month has a different theme, such as gender, race or religion and comes with a gift created by an independent female, trans or non-binary artist. It’ll put works on your radar that you might not have heard of, give you a more in-depth understanding of the feminist mindset and support marginalised people in their goal to create meaningful art – what’s not to love?

( Books That Matter )

Mr B’s Book Emporium

Mr B’s Book Emporium is a subscription that comes from the eponymous book shop in Bath. After filling in a questionnaire about preferences, subscribers will receive a new book each month handpicked for them by the in-house bibliotherapists. If you love the romance of packages in brown paper tied up with string, you’ll be in for a treat with Mr B’s, whose packages arrive in this getup with a wax seal stamped on to boot.

Not only does this add a little sense of ceremony to the proceedings but it also makes you appreciate the book inside a lot more. This is a great book subscription and one that also supports independent bookshops.

From £25 a month | MR B’s Emporium | Buy it now

Reading In Heels

Only launched last year, Reading in Heels has already developed something of a following thanks to its thoughtful subscription service. Those that sign up will receive one curated book a month, along with some treats to make the reading of it all the more ritualistic.

These could be anything from chocolates and tea to bath salts and face masks – after all, there’s nothing like a spot of pampering when you’re tearing through a good book. Given that this is one of the most reasonably priced on the list, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

( Reading In Heels )

The Bookishly Classic Book Crate

An excellent option if one of your goals is to read more classics. The Bookishly Classic Book Crate does what it says on the tin, delivering a novel such as Rebecca, Wuthering Heights or Frankenstein once an month alongside a series of gifts, such as teas, themed stationery and candles. What sets this box apart is the cover artwork – all of which is created in house – meaning you’ll have never seen the cover of your latest read in a bookshop and you can start to build a collection of uniquely decorated tomes.

( The Bookishly Classic Book Crate )

WILDWOMAN

We all know how important self care is, which is why WILDWOMAN makes such an interesting book subscription box. Each one includes a book focused on personal growth and development as well as a few gifts to help you get in the zone. These include everything from cute stationery to healing crystals and affirmation cards. Past titles have included The Anxiety Solution by Chloe Brotheridge and The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson. The subscription will also give you access to the GozenGirls community – an online forum on which to discuss the latest release.

( WILDWOMAN )

The Couples Book Club

A simple concept that doesn’t come with extra bells and whistles, just two copies of the same book for you and your partner to read each month. All you have to do is fill out the online survey stating your preferences then sit back and wait for the first subscription to arrive. This offers an interesting way for couples to do something together and at only £44.99 for a three month subscription, is much cheaper than a night out.

( The Couples Book Club )
£44.99 for 3 months | The Willoughby Book Club | Buy it now

Date Night With A Book

If you’re tired of scrolling through Tinder and going on tedious dates, just forget the whole thing and sign up to this book subscription service instead. Ok, so that may be a bit drastic, but Date Night With A Book will provide you with everything you need for a great night in. It’s budget friendly and tailored to your taste – you provide the company with a short list of your favourite books and genres and they’ll come back to you with the goods, plus a satchet of tea and hot chocolate, so you can hunker down in your favourite armchair with a new book and a steaming mug of something comforting. Bliss.

( Date Night With A Book )
From £11.95 per month | Date Night With A Book | Buy it now

Shelter Box

A book subscription service with a heart, Shelter Box offers a unique and compelling opportunity to do some good and read a great book at the same time. Each month, subscribers receive a book that they’ve collectively chosen (five options are floated by the head bookworm and members get to vote the one they want to read), each of which tells a story inspired by cultures, experiences and people in the real world. A portion of the money you pay each month then goes towards a Shelter Box, which is filled with essentials such as tents, first aid supplies and toiletries to help rehabilitate families who have been hit by disaster. You can pay as little as £10 a month, or opt to donate as much as you like.

( Shelter Box )

Wildest Dreams

If you’re into YA fiction, or know a teenager that is, the Uppercase Box is for you.

Created by a young bookworm who was working through a chronic illness and on the hunt for a decent book subscription for teens, each month will include a compelling YA novel as well as a few self-care items, such as bath products, tea and sweets. As the books included are all relatively new releases, it’s a great way to keep on top of what’s fresh in the YA world.

( Wildest Dreams )

Movie Vs Book – Date Night With A Book

Another interesting one from Date Night With A Book, there are no prizes for guessing what you get with this box. Each month includes a book and the movie version on DVD (past boxes have included titles such as PS. I Love You) so you can compare and contrast the two. Just try not to watch the film before you’ve read the books…

( Movie Vs Book – Date Night With A Book )
From £14.95 a month | Date Night With A Book | Buy it now

Book Box Club

Don’t want all the extras you often get with a book subscription service? What we love about this Young Adult option is that you can choose to either receive just a book or gifts too – you have the option to select your preferences, unlike with many others. Each month centres on a different theme (for example, Magic Potions or Rule the Stars) and they really hype up the big reveal, so you can get excited about what you might receive each month. It’s also a crafty way to encourage your teenagers to become more engaged with reading.

( Book Box Club )

Rare Bird Book Club

No frills with this one – just a carefully selected book each month that’ll, thankfully, fit through the letterbox. This is the option to pick if you don’t necessarily want to stick to one genre or find it difficult to pin down what kind of books you prefer, as many subscription services ask you to do when you sign up. Each book received will be a complete surprise and could be from any number of genres – the only common theme between them being that they’ll have a female protagonist – meaning you’ll get exposed to a range of books you may never have come across otherwise.

( Rare Bird Book Club )

Abominable Book Club

If you’re into horrors and thrillers, the Abominable Book Club will get your goose pimples going each month with a brand new release, a second hand mystery option as well as a range of hot drinks and sweet treats. If you know you’re into this kind of book, it’ll expand your horizons and introduce you to new authors as well as remind you of old ones you may have long forgotten. The real question here is whether or not you’ve got the guts to read these frighteners alone at night.

( Abominable Book Club )
From £17 a month | Abominable Book Club | Buy it now

Prudence and the Crow

Founded by two bookworms who were looking for a vintage book subscription service and couldn’t find one, Prudence and the Crow sends out vintage and second-hand copies of books to its huge fanbase. This service is particularly special because you know that each book has not only been tailored to your tastes but has been sourced and hand selected for you – it’s like receiving a thoughtful gift from a friend. You’ll be able to curate an interesting bookshelf whilst also giving a new lease of life to books that have been long forgotten.

( Prudence and the Crow )

Verdict

It’s difficult to choose just one service here as they’re all so different but the ones that stick out as being particularly unique are Books That Matter for its cultural relevance and Shelter Box for its philanthropic idea.

ESMA sets out final position on Share Trading Obligation
ESMA sets out final position on Share Trading Obligation

The statement outlines that the trading of shares with a European Economic Area (EEA) ISIN on a UK trading venue in UK pound sterling (GBP) by EU investment firms will not be subject to the EU STO. This currency approach supplements the EEA-ISIN approach outlined in a previous ESMA statement of May 2019.

This revised guidance aims at addressing the specific situation of the small number of EU issuers whose shares are mainly traded on UK trading venues in GPB. ESMA, based on EU-wide data, regards that such trading by EU investments firms occurs on a non-systematic, ad-hoc, irregular and infrequest basis. Therefore, those trades will not be subject to the EU STO, under Artcile 23 of MiFIR. 

ESMA has done the maximum possible in close cooperation with the European Commission to minimise disruption and to avoid overlapping STO obligations and their potentially adverse effects for market participants. The approach put forward by ESMA will effectively avoid such overlaps if the UK adopts an approach that does not include EEA ISINs under the UK STO. ESMA however notes that the scope of the UK STO after the end of the transition period remains unclear at this stage.

In the absence of an equivalence decision in respect of the UK, the potential adverse effects of the application of the STO after the end of the transition period are expected to be the same as in the no-deal Brexit scenario considered in the previous ESMA statement.

The application of the STO to shares with a different ISIN should continue to be determined taking into account the previous ESMA guidance published on 13 November 2017.