The Shadowhunter's Codex - Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

I have decided to venture into a second book, The Shadowhunter's Codex to attempt to quench my thirst of the Shadowhunter world! In Cassandra's incredible, The Mortal Instruments series, the Shadowhunter's Codex is actually mentioned as a sort of reference and guide book for Shadowhunters in training. It's like a text book us mundanes receive in class.
One of my favourite things about this book so far is actually the added bits and pieces throughout - Clary, Simon and Jace has actually taken notes and Clary has drawn pictures and written a personal note to the reader; the Shadowhunter in training. It is rather an awesome concept - for the reader who has enjoyed being a part of the Shadowhunter world, following these characters throughout their journey, can in a way take their own to becoming a Shadowhunter, with the help of our beloved Jace, Clary and Simon along the way. Their notes add realism (well, for fictional characters anyway), hilarity and surprise to the novel.
So far, this Codex has enlightened many aspects to the Shadowhunter world, their weapons, locations, what it means to be a Shadowhunter, how a Shadowhunter chooses a name, and so much more. It's a very interesting read so far and provides in-depth knowledge to the behind-the-scenes if you will of the world we know and love.

'Congradulations. You are ready to embark upon the righteous and rewarding life of a Shadowhunter.We have been chosen by the Angel to keep out world safe from the evil creatures we call "demons". And now you are one of us, and with this book, you will learn our lore and our ways. Angels, demons, faeries, vampires, werewolves, warlocks: they all exist, and they all must be managed and kept at peace. Welcome to our ranks, and study hard. This book could be the difference between life and death.'

Alice in Zombieland - Gena Showalter

I am going to begin reading this book, Alice in Zombieland, which I got as a gift last year. I believe it is a series of three books, in which I have the first two. I was pretty excited for this book because I love the story of Alice in Wonderland, one of my favourites ever, and I thought this was a modern spin-off which included zombies in Wonderland. However, I have read many reviews and researched this book quite a bit since then and I have found that this has almost nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland itself save a few things here and there that could be connected to the amazing classic.
I am glad I found this out before I started reading, otherwise I may have been super irritated. Even now, it's slightly annoying that a writer would rely so heavily on essentially false advertising. I will still give it a go however, and attempt to separate this entirely from the renowned Alice in Wonderland.
Also, side note - the artwork on the cover of this book is so beautiful. Absolutely lovely. It is very Alice in Wonderland esque again but I really am loving it.

'SHE WON'T REST UNTIL SHE'S SENT EVERY WALKING CORPSE BACK TO ITS GRAVE. 

FOREVER. 

If anyone had told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone. 

Her father was right. The monsters are real. 

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to truth the baddest of bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.' 

The City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare - Completed

I have completed this marvelous book with only an unquenchable thirst for more! This book seemed to go up a level (if that was possible). There was more death and war, more love and betrayal, more eery and spine tingling uncomfortableness and she left us with yet another cliff hanger that we must wait several months to learn the outcome of!
I do hope this next book is the last one of this phenomenal series. And I do hope they make movies out of the whole series. I have seen The City of Bones and I rather enjoyed it. Of course, most of the time, the book is better - no cut outs, more detail, more imagination and emotion is vital from the reader. With a movie, it's all out in front of you - whether you pictured a character, location or event differently or not, the movie portrays it the way they want and it forever disfigures, changes, ruins, or improves your perception of all these things and more. I know City of Glass is being made into a movie for this year which is pretty exciting.
Anywho, back to the book. It was fantastic. It never takes me too long to read books by Cassandra, she writes in such a way that just gets the reader so immensely involved in what she's writing that it feels like real-time almost, and you mustn't stop reading or time itself will hault.
Five out of five for this one.
Of course in all of her books, I find little petty annoyances, but which book doesn't have any of those? Honestly. So still 5/5. I won't allow small things damper the reputation of such an amazing series.

City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare

I was hoping to hold off a little longer to read this because I knew I would be flying through it and the next book doesn't come out for a few more months (City of Heavenly Fire comes out in May). But I just couldn't. And now, I am already over halfway after three days of reading!
Obviously I love the way she writes as well as her characters. I'm sure anyone who has read her books get deeply invested in her characters' lives. Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn - all of these characters have such relatable and real-life human, as well as supernatural and non-human qualities that draw us mere mortals toward them.
None of the books in the series so far has disappointed me. None have lack of adventure or humour or romance or action or emotion or death. Each book has its fair share of all of these things. And I love that. There has been no down-hill slope for the series so far. However, I do hope Cassandra, being as talented and instinctive as she is with her writing, doesn't attempt to draw out the series and stops it when the audience wants more, rather than when the audience wants it to be finished.

I am Malala - Malala Yousafzai (completed)

I completed this book a few days ago and I really enjoyed it. Of course there were a few things I didn't care for; for example, because the book was written by such a young woman (16 I believe) there were some grammatical inconsistencies as well as repetition or the deep explanation of information that was verging on unimportant for the book. However, having said this, I don't want petty things such as that to stop someone from reading such an inspirational story.
It is a hard on to read aloud due to the Afghanistan setting, with names and locations. There was a large focus on historical information and anecdote which was both interesting and sometimes enjoyable to read - at times it was also very emotional.
If you are reading this book to learn ONLY about the shooting, then skip to the last two or three chapters - these few chapters are really the only ones that talk about the day of the shooting itself. There are also images of a few of the events she mentions.
This book provided a very unique perspective into other worldly things happening at the time too, which was thoroughly interesting. Such as the 9/11 terrorist attack - and what that was like in her country.
All around, I found this book full of information, emotional and inspiring. I would recommend people reading this one, even if its through an audio book, or skimming - it'd be worth a read.
4/5 stars :)