‘Tell Me Three Things’ Review

After the death of a loved one, time dutifully marches on. The person left behind—spouse, child or sibling—tries to process the accompanying grief and everyone does it differently. However, for many, the days since the death are often counted. And so for 16-year-old Jessie Holmes, as “Tell Me Three Things” opens in this fictional Young Adult novel, the number is 733 days since her mother died of ovarian cancer.

Tell Me Three Things Uplifts

Even though the book is voiced by a teenager who needs to come to terms with her mother’s death, “Tell Me Three Things” is far from a depressing read. In fact, at the end, many readers will have smiles plastered on their faces. This novel is Julie Buxbaum’s first to be penned in the Young Adult genre, but don’t be deterred by this fact. “Tell Me Three Things” reads more like a fine example of contemporary literature, including some modern-day literary trope to move the plot along.

What made Buxbaum change course and veer away from her usual wheelhouse of adult fiction? It was time to sit down and explore feelings that she had kept bottled up for more than 24 years. Like Jessie, Buxbaum lost her mother at the same age, and she also counted days, which has since morphed into counting the years. At the end of the novel, Buxbaum shared a note to readers. According to the former lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School, she wanted to explore what it was like to lose a parent as a teenager—at that crucial period in time that is already difficult. Buxbaum did not want to write a depressing book so she wove in a theme that is much more uplifting…first love.

Contrary to what many would assume, Jessie Holmes is NOT Julie Buxbaum. “Jessie is not me—she’s so much cooler and more together than I ever was at sixteen, or even am now…But she’s a version of me, an alterna-me…” Driving both the imagined version of the author and Jessie is the supreme desire to be seen and understood, which leads to the creation of a perfect foil, the mysterious Somebody Nobody or SN.

Relocation to the West Coast

After two years, Jessie’s father unexpectedly remarries and moves the two to Los Angeles, which is light-years away from where our heroine grew up in Chicago. Enter SN, who helps Jessie navigate the landscape of the foreign land of not only a new school, but a new private school to boot.

As we walk with Jessie through the first-person account of her early days in the City of Angels, the reader is introduced to a number of supporting characters: a new sibling, her step-brother; classic high school mean girls; a dark brooding loner and potential new best friends.

Thankfully, she has SN to help her sidestep the inevitable booby traps and angst of high school. But there is a bond that ties Jessie and secret admirer SN: he has also lost a loved one, a sibling. There are days when life gets overwhelming for Jessie, and they become what she describes as really bad days. “My eyes fill with tears, though I fight them. I’m not sure why I feel like crying. Suddenly, everything feels irrevocably broken in that way it can in the middle of the night when you are alone. In that way it can when you are watching your father comfort his new wife. In that way it can when you too are hurting but there’s no one there to comfort you.”

Until SN enters her life, Jessie has kept her emotions and grief in check. What she shares is relatable for young and old alike. “But I still haven’t found the words to talk about my mom. The real her. To remember who she was in a way that doesn’t make me keel over.”

Experience over Things

“Tell Me Three Things” teaches some valuable lessons about life, death and love. The reader witnesses Jessie’s coming of age as she realizes that even though her mom has died, her essence still lives on. Her mom loved her unconditionally, which she will always cherish and keep close to her heart. Jessie realizes how fortunate she was that she was “loved in a way that not everyone gets to love their mom. Loved my mom because she was cool and interesting and warm and listened to me and continued to make me pancakes in the shape of my initials because somehow, even though I didn’t, she always understood that I’d never be too old for that sort of thing.”

Like many of us who have lost a loved one, Jessie voices the one regret she has learned to come to terms with in the end, “She will never see who I grew up to be—that great mystery of who I am and who I am meant to be—finally asked and answered.”

At Chapters Health System and its affiliates—Good Shepherd Hospice, HPH Hospice and LifePath Hospice, every day is devoted to educating our patients and keeping them in the place they call home. We are dedicated to ensuring that patients, young and old alike, and their families are able to make educated decisions about important healthcare matters. For more information, please call our helpful Chapters Health team at 1.866.204.8611 or send an email to info@chaptershealth.org.

About Phoebe Ochman

Phoebe Ochman, Director of Corporate Communications for Chapters Health System, manages all content and communications for the not-for-profit organization.

Trends in Books: BookCrossing

The last trend in books that was shared in this space was the Little Free Library phenomenon and this time around we are tackling, BookCrossing.

What is BookCrossing?

Have you ever left a book behind by mistake at a coffee shop or your doctor’s office? Or perhaps you found an abandoned book at an airport gate? If either scenario rings a bell, you might have wondered what happened to your book or the story behind the book you found. Well BookCrossing solves both dilemmas.

The definition of BookCrossing is “the act of releasing books into the wild for a stranger to find or via a controlled release to another BookCrossing member.” After the release of said book, BookCrossing members/participants can track the travels of the book around the world via journal entries. BookCrossing books are identified by a sticker strategically placed on the inside cover.

Today there are more than 1.8 million BookCrossing members all over the world!

How Do You Become a BookCrossing Member?

Becoming a BookCrossing member is easy, FREE and only takes less than a minute. All you need to sign up is an email address and then you are prompted to create a password. That’s it.

Once you look through your book shelves and identify a book or two to set free, register it and you will be assigned a unique number or BookCrossing IDentification (BCID) number. This number will allow you to track the book on its journey, well, that is if the person discovering your BookCrossing book joins in the fun and journals that your book has been found out in the wild. (Unfortunately, to date, only 15 to 20 percent of BookCrossing books will receive a journal entry.)

How Do You Release a BookCrossing Book?

Once you have a BCID number for the book destined to take a trip, the next step is to label it. You can create your own labels, buy them directly from BookCrossing or even handwrite a note inside the front cover.

The following are some hints to make a BookCrossing release successful:

• Make sure the finder knows the book was left behind on purpose. When releasing a book into the wild, the last thing you want to happen is for someone to think your book was lost. It is a good idea to let the finder know that the book can be taken home—it is his or her book to read.
• Leave at locations where the book is likely to be discovered. The following are some of the best places to release your book: coffee shop, museum, subway car, waiting room, park bench, public garden and near a statue. If you decide to leave your book outside in the elements, make sure the BookCrossing release is protected in a Ziploc bag.
• Make it easy for the finder to log the journal entry. In addition to the sticker on the inside cover, use a Sharpie on the bottom edge of the book to write down the BCID number and the website address.

So if you have books that you loved, why not share them and let them take a journey to who knows where!