🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Joy Castro
Joy Castro is a bestselling and award winning author of literary fiction best known for the “Nola Cespedes” series of novels. The short story and literary fiction author has received several awards over the years, including the International Latino Book Award and the Nebraska Book Award. Castro has also edited the “Family Trouble” anthology and was the judge of the Creative Nonfiction Award for CRAFT. In her earlier years, Joy worked at Vanderbilt University, where she was writer in residence. She now works for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a Willa Cather Professor of Ethnic and English Studies. While Joy Castro currently makes her home in Lincoln Nebraska, she lived all over the US before settling in the state.
All Book Series by Joy Castro
American Lives, Volume I To 1876
Series opener · book 1 of 47 · published 1997 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
American Lives, Volume II Since 1877
Book 2 of 47 · published 1997 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall,Nancy Nahra
Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed
Book 6 of 47 · published 2003 Anthology · Mimi Schwartz
Songs from the Black Chair: A Memoir of Mental Interiors
Book 8 of 47 · published 2005 Anthology · Charles Barber
The Fortune Teller's Kiss
Book 10 of 47 · published 2006 Anthology · Brenda Serotte
What Becomes You
Book 12 of 47 · published 2007 Anthology · Aaron Raz Link,Hilda Raz
Just Breathe Normally
Book 13 of 47 · published 2007 Anthology · Peggy Shumaker
Between Panic and Desire
Book 14 of 47 · published 2008 Anthology · Dinty W. Moore
Searching for Tamsen Donner
Book 16 of 47 · published 2009 Anthology · Gabrielle Burton
American Lives
Book 19 of 47 · published 2011 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
Eleanor Roosevelt
Book 20 of 47 · published 2011 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
This Is Not the Ivy League
Book 22 of 47 · published 2011 Anthology · Mary Clearman Blew
Harry Truman Gives 'Em Hell
Book 23 of 47 · published 2011 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
Descanso for My Father
Book 24 of 47 · published 2012 Anthology · Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
Martin Luther King Jr. Brother Martin Has A Dream American
Book 25 of 47 · published 2012 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
The Pat Boone Fan Club
Book 32 of 47 · published 2014 Anthology · Sue William Silverman
Andrew Carnegie
Book 33 of 47 · published 2014 Anthology · Willard Sterne Randall
Get Me Through Tomorrow
Book 34 of 47 · published 2015 Anthology · Mojie Crigler
My Wife Wants You to Know I'm Happily Married
Book 36 of 47 · published 2015 Anthology · Joey Franklin
Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
Book 37 of 47 · published 2017 Anthology · Sonya Huber
A Certain Loneliness
Book 39 of 47 · published 2018 Anthology · Sandra Gail Lambert
The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet
Book 41 of 47 · published 2018 Anthology · Kim Adrian
The Virgin of Prince Street
Book 43 of 47 · published 2019 Anthology · Sonja Livingston
The Distance Between
Book 44 of 47 · published 2019 Anthology · Timothy J. Hillegonds
How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
Latest in the series · book 47 of 47 · published 2020 Anthology · Sue William Silverman
C*nt: A Declaration of Independence
Series opener · book 1 of 5 · published 1998 Anthology · Inga Muscio
Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism
Book 2 of 5 · published 2002 Anthology · Bushra Rehman,Daisy Hernández
Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class
Book 3 of 5 · published 2004
Valencia
Latest in the series · book 5 of 5 · published 2025 Anthology · Michelle Tea
Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class
Series opener · book 1 of 2 · published 2004
Suspense Magazine September 2012
Latest in the series · book 2 of 2 · published 2012
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Joy Castro?
Joy Castro is a bestselling and award winning author of literary fiction best known for the “Nola Cespedes” series of novels. The short story and literary fiction author has received several awards over the years, including the International Latino Book Award and the Nebraska Book Award. Castro has also edited the “Family Trouble” anthology and was the judge of the Creative Nonfiction Award for CRAFT.
Which Joy Castro series should I start with?
The best place to start is the American Lives series, the earliest of Joy Castro's multi-book series: it opens with American Lives, Volume I To 1876 (1997) and runs to 47 books across 1997–2020, ending with How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences (2020). Joy Castro's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Joy Castro written?
Joy Castro has 62 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1997 and 2025. 54 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the American Lives series with 47 books — and 8 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Joy Castro's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Joy Castro's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are American Lives (1997–2020, 47 books), Live Girls (1998–2025, 5 books) and Nola Cespedes Mysteries (2012–2013, 2 books).
How are Joy Castro's books organised into series?
This guide splits Joy Castro's 62 books into 3 named series and 8 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: American Lives (47 books, 1997–2020); Live Girls (5 books, 1998–2025); Nola Cespedes Mysteries (2 books, 2012–2013).