今天给大家推荐的书是《玻璃城堡》，这本书讲述的是一个真实的故事，却又离奇得超乎想象，轻松幽默的语言背后有着许多深沉感人的亮点。

本书作者是珍妮特·沃尔斯(Jeannette Walls)，美国著名记者。2005年珍妮特出版这本回忆录《玻璃城堡》，首次公开自己鲜为人知、与众不同的家庭背景和成长经历，凭借此书蜚声文坛。

"What if they don't?"

"That just means you haven't come to the end yet.”

“事情到最后都会解决的。”

“如果没有解决呢?”

“那只能说明你还没走到最后。”

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

你不应该恨任何人，即使是你的死敌。每个人都有好的一面。你得找到那些足以弥补的品质，并为此去爱那个人。

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.

生活就像一部戏剧，悲喜参半。你应该学会享受那些喜剧情节。

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

我想让世界知晓，没有人拥有完美的生活，即使是那些似乎拥有一切的人，也有他们的难言之隐。

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.

如果你不想溺水，那你最好学会游泳。

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

你要了解这个世界，并不一定要获得一个大学学位。只要你下点功夫，你可以自己学到很多东西。

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

有时候，在你变得更好之前，你得先受点罪。

It was your inner spirit and not your outward appearance that mattered.

一个人的外表并不重要，重要的是他的内在精神。

“Life's too short to worry about what other people think,'' Mom said.''Anyway, they should accept us for who we are.”

“生命太短暂了，不需要担心别人怎么想，”妈妈说，“不管怎样，他们应该接受我们真实的样子。”

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

那些无法将你击垮的事情，只会让你变得更强。

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty."

有一天，我看到离那棵老树不远的地方长着一株幼小的约书亚树苗。我想把它挖出来，种在我们家附近。我告诉妈妈，我每天都要保护它，让它不受风雨侵袭，这样它就能长得又高又直。妈妈听了之后，皱着眉头。“你这样会毁了它的与众不同之处，”她说，“正是因为它挣扎着成长，它的美丽才得以绽放。”

Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, he'd say, lived in fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldn't even see the stars. We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.

爸爸喜欢指着星星说，那些闪亮的星星，是对我们这些生活在荒野的人的特殊馈赠。那些富有的城里人住在豪华公寓里，但他们生活的地方空气污染严重，连星星都看不见。我们疯了才会想和他们交换位置。

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. “Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,” Dad said, “you’ll still have your stars."

我们嘲笑那些相信圣诞老人的故事的孩子们，过圣诞节时，他们只能得到一堆廉价的塑料玩具。“多年以后，当他们得到的那些垃圾坏掉，被人遗忘在角落的时候，”爸爸说，“你们还能拥有自己的星星。”

The world seemed divided into girls with boyfriends and girls without them. It was the distinction that mattered the most, practically the only one that did matter. But I knew that boys were dangerous. They'd say they loved you, but they were always after something.

世界上的女孩似乎分为两种，一种是有男朋友的，一种是没有男朋友的。这是最重要的区别，实际上是唯一重要的区别。但是我知道，男孩们很危险。他们会对你说“我爱你”，但他们又总是想要获得某些东西。

- The End -

在这个故事中，虽然父亲说的“玻璃城堡”并没有建成，但在每个人的心里都有一座“玻璃城堡”。这美好的梦想支撑了这家人幸福快乐的一生。

也许我们并未像故事里的这一家人一样，过着游牧式的生活，但我相信，我们的家庭也有着自己的故事。

也许不像“玻璃城堡”这样，充满着甜蜜和残酷的瞬间，但是我们的故事也一定有别样的色彩。

我们是故事的讲述者，我们也是故事的阅读者，我们要为自己的故事负责。一个人想要过怎么样的生活，想成为怎么样的人，最后都可以实现。如果我们想改变，我们可以成为第一代的开拓者。我们可以在自己的心里建造一座“玻璃城堡”。抬头望星的时候，记得守住自己的初心。