Words and phrases

1.Someone was taking over the property; there were liens against his assets.

lien  留置权；扣押权    a legal claim that someone or something has on the property of another person until a debt has been paid back

例句   The bank had a lien on our house.

2.The days of endlessly schlepping back and forth to church were no longer my problem, and I was lazily sleeping in.

schlep   1.（劳神耗时或不情愿地）去，赶往to go somewhere, especially if it is a slow, difficult journey, or you do not want to go

2.搬，抬，拖，拉（重物）to carry or pull sth heavy

3.The strange thing was that when Fufi got kicked she never yelped or cried.

yelp   (因疼痛等)尖叫to give a sudden short cry, usually of pain

搭配  give, let out ~喊叫；发出喊叫   

with a ~带着一声喊叫~ of…的喊叫

例句 She jumped back with a little yelp of surprise.她吃惊地喊叫了一声跳了回去。

4.She herself seemed resolute, as determined as ever, but with an undertone of sadness I had never seen before,

There was an undercurrent of terror that ran through the house, but the actual beatings themselves were not that frequent.

undertone  1. a particular but not obvious characteristic that a piece of writing or speech, an event or a situation has （文章或讲话的）含意，弦外之音；（事件或情况的）蕴含意义

例句 I thought her speech had slightly sinister undertones.我认为她的话里有点儿不祥的意味。

    2.in an undertone 轻声地，低声地

undercurrent    ~ (of sth) a feeling, especially a negative one, that is hidden but whose effects are felt 潜在的情绪(尤指负面的)

例句  I detect an undercurrent of resentment towards the new proposals.我察觉到对新提案有一股潜在的不满情绪。

5.When my mom had decided to keep Isaac, I was so close to writing her off.

write someone or something off  这个短语意思蛮多，这里意思是是忽视；认定…不重要(或无用)；If you write someone or something off, you decide that they are unimportant or useless and that they are not worth further serious attention.

例句He is fed up with people writing him off because of his age.

他很讨厌大家因为他的年纪而小看他。

Thoughts

“What? What are you talking about, ‘the bright side’? Mom, you were shot in the face. There is no bright side.” “Of course there is. Now you’re officially the best-looking person in the family.” She broke out in a huge smile and started laughing. Through my tears, I started laughing, too. I was bawling my eyes out and laughing hysterically at the same time. We sat there and she squeezed my hand and we cracked each other up the way we always did, mother and son, laughing together through the pain in an intensive-care recovery room on a bright and sunny and beautiful day.

“Jesus is your health insurance?” “If God is with me, who can be against me?”

书的开头和收尾都安排好棒啊！开头是有悬念的跳车，逃离公交司机枪杀，结尾又是惊悚的继父枪杀，还有继父最后的结果也是有点讽刺，最佩服的是他妈妈，经历这一切还能笑对生活，还教会Trevor也look on the bright side。结尾很暖心！妈妈真是顽强乐观啊！

枪的中途失火，中枪后最后发现并没有危险的结果，痊愈之后依然去上班。这一切大家都说是奇迹。一直满怀信仰的妈妈乐观的说，“If God is with me, who can be against me?也许是巧合，也许真是一直心怀上帝，每天虔诚祈祷的妈妈得到了上帝的眷顾。

Trevor一定也学到了妈妈的乐观幽默呢，这本书处处能看出他幽默的笔触呢。学到了保持信仰和希望，生活才不会枯竭。是枝裕和电影《奇迹》说：‘希望那像是小小祈祷般的七个人的旅行，能够结出果实，希望象征着这个世界永不消失的温柔事物，能够永不被遗忘，能被继承下去。白色、橙色、粉色的波斯菊，随着和缓的风轻轻摆动。像是暂时能覆盖世界上所有的悲伤和灾难一般。它们会在这里盛开。“