My third YA novel, Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, is out from HarperCollins on June 5, 2018. I love this cover, the colors, the texture. Everything on the cover has something to do with the road trip, and it makes me so happy that there are three POC (Mariam, Ghazala and Umar, the three main characters) on it. It also has to be the first YA book cover featuring a Muslim prayer rug and a lota! I had a blast writing this and can't wait for it to be shared with the world.

If your association with Bollywood is over the top dance numbers and predictable plot lines, it’s time to reacquaint yourself! Though cheesy Bollywood films still abound, there has been a new wave of Indian cinema, ranging from small indie films to bigger budget productions—smart, funny, often unflinching. Here are five films streaming on Netflix that are worth your while:

As a young adult writer, I'm often asked for YA book recommendations. Here are some of my favorite books I’ve read in the recent past.

A welcome aspect of "New Nashville" is its ever-expanding restaurant scene. In 2013, when I started telling people in New York City we were moving to Nashville, the general reaction was open-mouthed gape. Since then, the New York Times has proclaimed Nashville an It city, and the city has become an increasingly popular tourist destination as well as earning the dubious distinction of bachelorette capital of the USA. Now, when I return to New York and tell people I live in Nashville, the response is either “I just visited there!” or “I’ve been meaning to visit.” As more people relocate here, it's also facing the myriad of problems that accompany gentrification and soaring real estate prices, but that's a post for another day.

Sara Farizan’s 2014 YA debut is about a lesbian teenager living in Tehran who’s been in love with her best friend since they were six. That alone should be enough to make you want to read it, and when you do, you’ll find yourself falling hard for the narrator Sahar, a sharp, intelligent girl willing to sacrifice anything for the possibility of being with her beloved, even herself.