Of course, the fifties are long gone. Because now women have jobs. And its not being a domestic engineer. Women don't consider having a job beneath them.

But for some reason, people think that being a housewife is the lowest job you can ever have. I don't understand this way of thinking at all. Just because you're not making money, doesn't mean its the worst job in the world. It just bothers me that in order to command respect you have to get degrees. And those same people who study their whole lives to get a degree don't even know how to make plain rice. Or how to clean and organize the house. Because somehow this job is beneath them.

In fact, you rarely ever see the husband taking on the homemaker role. And if they do, they're ridiculed. In my 7th and 8th grades, there was a boy I knew who used to love to cook. He really wanted a cooking class as part of our curriculum (He was the only boy who wanted it). But I also remembered how all the boys in my class used to be unkind to him because apparently "cooking is girly", never mind that a lot of the famous chefs out there are guys.

In my house, its even worse. The extent of what my brother does is like vacuum once every four months when my mom tells him to. When my brother is finished vacuuming roughly two rooms my mom starts praising him as if he passed his MCAT. My dad is far worse. Unlike my brother, who puts things back where they belong, and puts things the way it was before he came (Which is basically all I ask for), my dad leaves everything sitting out there.

This morning, I found a knife with banana smeared all over it lying on the island kitchen table. I found a bowl of cherries taken out, and the seeds and stems spat on a half plate lying there. And at least five cups that once held tea in it all strewn around. There are probably more outside... We do tend to lose cups here and there. Oh and a bunch of books lying around the place. And then he comes up to me and says I need to organize the place because its dirty. I CLEANED THE HOUSE THE DAY BEFORE!! Do you seriously see something wrong here?! Its not that hard to rinse a plate and put it in the dishwasher.

It's like men consider housekeeping beneath them or something. I don't mind cleaning the house regularly, but the fact that you just have to mess everything up after we're all done cleaning the area drives me insane. Isn't cleanliness supposed to be half of our Iman?

Props to whoever designed the front cover. They probably knew that the tween population would have the same reaction or something on par to that. Because the body means hot hot characters, and hot hot characters was why Twilight got popular in the first place. Besides, nobody wants the main character to be ugly, am I right?

Okay, enough about ripping on the dumb cover. When Iman got the book, I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical. I read through the first chapter and was, surprise, surprise, rather unimpressed. I was ready to dismiss it as another series doomed to be a Twilight or Harry Potter wannabe success thing. But I reminded myself that Harry Potter began much the same way; In fact, the first half of The Sorceror's Stone is rather a dull piece of work. So I ploughed onto the rest of the book. The first book left me with mixed feelings.

Certainly it wasn't like Twilight. It was better than that.

Certainly it wasn't like Harry Potter. It was worse than that. But I expected that one.

The book centers around a girl named Clary, which is short for Clarissa. She is first introduced as your typical 17 year old with red hair and an exceptional artist, like her mother. She has virtually no friends save for her best friend Simon who also appears frequently in the series. Her normal life is cut short when she is introduced to a magical world concealed by glamour. The world is full of Children of the Moon (lycanthropes AKA werewolves), Children of the Night (vampires), the Fair Folk (fairies), Lilith's Children (Warlocks), demons (parasitic creatures that destroy any world they come onto) and most importantly Shadow Hunters (Humans who are turned into warriors who kill the demons and those that break the Law that all magical beings abide by with the use of runes and awesome weapons).

Clary meets new people, and we become more familiar with the following characters:

Jace: Who is indeed the cover of the book. He is described as having the face of an angel, though he doesn't act like one. He seems to care for nobody, except perhaps Clary (Yes, they do fall in love). He's also arrogant and a really good Shadow Hunter. Yes, everybody falls in love with him because he's a tortured soul and stuff. But he's different from Edward because he's not... Perfect. We find out later that he and Clary are siblings (LOL incest hawt) which is why he's always a tortured soul and stuff, and because of his father, the evil Valentine.

Alec: I like Alec. He's described from Clary's point of view as somebody who would have amazing looks if he didn't try downplaying them. He's sullen usually, doesn't say much and we learn later on that he's... gay. In the City of Bones we find out that he loves Jace. Woot. He's also socially awkward. Alec is a Shadowhunter as well, but he's never killed a demon. There are many theories that are presented such as he's a coward, or that he's too softhearted, but in the end, I think its because he'd rather just help Jace and Isabelle. He hates Clary because she and Jace are in L-O-V-E.

Isabelle: Isabelle is Alec's brother. She's veryyyyy pretty with her long black hair and blue eyes, and unlike Alec knows how to mingle and dress up, so she's like vain and stuff. She's a vicious Shadow Hunter and her preferred weapon is her whip. I guess she's ruthless because she's a girl and wants to prove her worth. In the beginning she dislikes Clary, but they become friends much later.

Hodge: Hodge is some old guy who lives with the aforementioned Shadowhunters because he's cursed. He has some pet raven named Hugin who we find out later on is Valentine's pet bird. Hodge is cursed, because he can never come to Idris, the country of Shadowhunters, because he was in alliance with Valentine. This is why, later on he betrays Jace and Clary.

Magnus Bane: Pretty much the most awesome character in the book. He's a warlock, which translates as "badass magical being". He's part asian and also... very gay (him and Alec eventually become lovers, but you don't really know that until books two and three). He's been alive for like 700 years. He's very... ostentatious, and odd. Which is why he's so cool.

Anyway, that's pretty much it.

When I first read City of Bones, I did not want to start the other books. Because I didn't enjoy City of Bones so much. But then I saw City of Ashes and City of Glass in Sams and I thought, "Well I'm not going to be doing anything else..." so I bought them.