Italian Americans book series in reading order

by Jackie Collins

Adriana Trigiani

24 books• 8 series

Adriana Trigiani is a New York City-based author, playwright, television writer and producer, film director and entrepreneur who has published a novel every year since 2000. Big Stone Gap (2000) opens the 24-book catalogue, followed by Big Cherry Holler (2001) and Milk Glass Moon (2002). Trigiani's series include Big Stone Gap, the Valentine Trilogy and Viola. Subjects include Italian American families, mountain life and domestic fiction. Do You Want Me to Go? (2026) is the newest title.

Howard Fast

90 books• 6 series

Howard Fast (November 11, 1914 - March 12, 2003) was an American author and television writer who also published as E.V. Cunningham, Behn Boruch and Walter Ericson. Across almost seven decades Fast wrote historical novels and noir, along with short stories, poems, plays and non-fiction. Spartacus (1951), April Morning (1961) and The Immigrants (1977) are among the best-known works, and Stanley Kubrick filmed Spartacus in 1960. The catalogue holds 90 books from Two Valleys (1933) to Collected Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction (2018), with Masao Masuto and Lavette Family as named series.

Jackie Collins

40 books• 6 series

Jackie Collins wrote about Hollywood, the film business and the women who fought their way through it. 40 catalogued books run from The World Is Full of Married Men (1960) through The Stud (1969), The Love Killers (1974), The World Is Full Of Divorced Women (1975) and Lovers and Gamblers (1977), ending at The Santangelos. Lucky Santangelo is the character Collins is best known for, joined by the Madison Castelli and Fontaine Khaled books. The catalogue is likely complete.

Mario Puzo

15 books• 1 series

Organised crime is Mario Puzo's subject. The Godfather (1969) sits in the middle of a catalogue of 15 books that starts with The Dark Arena (1955) and takes in The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965), Fools Die (1978), The Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth K (1990). Mafia families, Italian American immigrants and gambling run through the subjects, and nothing later than 2018 is catalogued.

Camilla Trinchieri writes two mystery series: the Simona Griffo books, whose lead is a woman detective and cook, and the Tuscan Mysteries. The Trouble with a Small Raise (1991) is the earliest of 16 catalogued titles, followed by six more Trouble books through 1997, and Murder Returns to Gravigna (2026) is the most recent. Cooking, Italian Americans, Italy and Rome fill the subject tags.

Roland Merullo

32 books• 2 series

Roland Merullo, born in 1953, is an American writer of novels, essays and memoir. 32 catalogued books span 1991 to 2026, opening with Leaving Losapas and reaching The Eight Visits. Breakfast with Buddha (2007) and the Revere Beach Trilogy are the best-known work, beside In Revere, In Those Days (2002), A Little Love Story (2005) and the memoir Revere Beach Elegy (2002). Italian American families, golf, Buddhism and self-realisation recur as subjects, and Merullo's books have been translated into eleven languages.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole is one of the series by Kathryn Lasky, an American children's writer born June 24, 1944, who writes for adults as Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Lasky's children's work also includes Dear America and The Royal Diaries books, Wolves of the Beyond, Sugaring Time and The Night Journey, and honours include a Newbery Honor, the National Jewish Book Award and the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature. The catalogue holds 159 books from I Have Four Names for My Grandfather (1976) to Sacred Light (2026), including Tugboats Never Sleep (1977), The Weaver's Gift (1980) and Beyond the Divide (1983). Horses Of The Dawn, Bears Of The Ice and Camp Princess are further series, and subjects name owls, wolves, diaries and Jews.

159 catalogued books stand under Mallory Monroe's name, published from Romancing the Bulldog (2011) to Trina Gabrini (2026). The Gabrini and Sinatra families run through most of them: Reno Gabrini/Mob Boss, Sal Gabrini, Tommy Gabrini, Mick Sinatra, Teddy Sinatra, Amelia Sinatra and the Sinatras of Jericho County. Alex Drakos, The President's Girlfriend, Rags to Romance, Trevor Reese and Monk Paletti are the other series. Contemporary romance meets organized crime, and interracial relationships between African American and Italian American characters recur as a subject.

Organised crime and Italian American life shape Lorenzo Carcaterra's books. Sleepers (1995) is the best known, set in Hell's Kitchen and adapted into a film in 1996. Carcaterra, born in 1954, has since written the Apaches and Tank Rizzo thrillers and the Nonna Maria mysteries, which now lead the catalogue. Sixteen books run from A Safe Place (1993) to Nonna Maria and the Case of the Lost Treasure in 2024.

Susan Stephens writes romance, with 85 books catalogued from The Italian Prince's Proposal (2003) to Christmas with Angel (2024). Stephens was once a professional singer and has also written several non-fiction books. Stephens met a future spouse on the Mediterranean island of Malta and has three children. Series include Acostas!, Blood and Thunder, Skavanga Diamonds, Hot Brazilian Nights!, Young, Hot & Royal and Maktabi Brothers. Subjects include contemporary romance, inheritance and succession, polo players and Italians.

Michael Parenti

25 books

Michael Parenti (1933-2026) was an American political scientist, historian and cultural critic of the American Left, known for Marxist writing and lectures. Parenti taught at universities and stood for political office. The Anti-Communist Impulse (1969) begins a 25-book list that includes Democracy for the Few (1974), Inventing Reality (1986) and Against Empire (1995). Imperialism, capitalism, social class and power are the recurring subjects.

Domenic Stansberry has 13 catalogued books, from The Spoiler (1987) to The Lizard (2025). The North Beach Mystery is Stansberry's series. Subject headings include mystery and detective fiction, private investigators, Italian Americans, investigative reporting and California, and name Dante Mancuso as a fictitious character. Other titles are The Last Days of Il Duce (1998), Manifesto for the Dead (2000), The Confession (2004) and The Ancient Rain (2008).

Mark Winegardner, born in 1961, is an American writer raised in Bryan, Ohio. Two novels carry on the story of Mario Puzo's Corleone family: The Godfather Returns (2004) and The Godfather's Revenge, published by Putnam in November 2006. Crooked River Burning (2001) and The Veracruz Blues (1996) are further novels, and That's True of Everybody (2002) is a collection of short stories. Nine books are catalogued in all, starting with Elvis Presley Boulevard (1988). Subjects record organized crime, Italian Americans, travel writing and baseball.

Stephanie Cole / Shelley Costa is a single credit covering 9 catalogued books published between 2013 and 2023. Three series sit under it: Italian Restaurant Mystery, Tuscan Cooking School Mystery and Val Cameron. Subjects record murder and its investigation, Italian cooking, Sicilian style, Italian Americans, women cooks, editors, museum curators and the theft of relics. Death Roll, Basil Instinct and You Cannoli Die Once all date from 2013, and the listing runs on through A Killer's Guide to Good Works, Practical Sins for Cold Climates, Al Dente's Inferno, Crime of the Ancient Marinara and Evil Under the Tuscan Sun to The Knife Sharpener (2023).