Find Book Reviews

This guide recommends selected print and electronic resources for locating book reviews. While basic resources are included, there are many others that cannot be covered here because of length. For assistance in using these resources, or to find additional information, contact a Reference Librarian.

Book reviews are a good measure of contemporary reaction to a work. They typically contain information about plot, quality of writing, and bio-bibliographical information. They can be as brief as one paragraph or several thousand words, but generally do not contain the kind of analysis found in literary criticism.

Of the thousands of books published every year, only a small percentage of those are ever reviewed. It is a possibility that the book in which you are interested was never reviewed. If you have difficulty finding a review, please ask for assistance at the Reference Desk.

Search Strategies

To find book reviews for a particular work, you will need to know the title of the book and/or the author's name, and the date of original publication.

• Reviews generally appear near the date of publication and up to several years afterward. Sometimes books issued later in critical edition will be reviewed at that time, but most reviews will probably appear around the time of the original publication date. Check the back of the title page or the library's online catalog for this date.
• Most electronic databases and indexes can be searched in a similar fashion. Whenever possible, select the advanced search option. You should be given the option to limit the search by article format or type and here you may specify "book review". You may also limit the date, but remember to search both the year of publication and several years afterward.
• For established authors, check the library's online catalog for published bibliographies, which often contain comprehensive lists of book reviews and literary criticism. Try a subject search on the name of the author you're interested in and look for the subheading "Bibliography".

Electronic Resources

• Academic Search Premier
  • Academic Search Premier is the world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, and covers a broad range of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. To find book reviews, first select Advanced Search from the tabs at the top. Then enter the title of the book or author, scroll down, and limit the Document Type to Book Review.
• America: History and Life
  • Indexes articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. To limit your search to book reviews, check Book Reviews on the main search page.
• Historical Abstracts
  • Indexes articles covering the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life). To limit your search to book reviews, check Book Reviews on the main search page.
• JSTOR
  • JSTOR provides access to the backfiles of several hundred important scholarly journals in a wide range of disciplines. Coverage is from the journal's inception until three or five years ago. To find book reviews, first select Advanced Search. Enter the title of the book in the top box. Scroll down and select Review in Narrow Your Search To:. You may also further narrow the search by date and/or discipline.
• LexisNexis Academic
  • To find reviews choose the News tab on the left side of the page, then choose All News
    
    • Step One: Enter title of book and author, if known. Make sure to enter these on separate lines.
    • Step Two: If desired, specify the date range that includes the date the book was published. (Optional)
    • Step Three: Select a source by type or by name.
    • Step Four: Use the checkboxes next to the various types of reviews (movie, book, music, theater, etc.).
    • Step Five: Click the Search button.
• Historical New York Times
  • The full text of the New York Time Book Review, plus any book and author-related articles in other sections of the paper. Coverage is from 1851 to three years prior to the current date. To find reviews, first choose the Advanced Search tab at the top. Enter your author or title in the first box. Scroll down and click on More Search Options. Under Document Type select Review. Note that you can limit your search by date if you're getting too many hits.
• Project Muse
  • Project MUSE covers the full text of over 200 academic journals in the humanities and social sciences. Coverage varies by title, beginning no earlier than 1993, and running through the current issue. To find book reviews, choose Advanced Search and use the pulldown menu under Limit Search and By Type to select Review. You may further limit the search by date.
• OmniFile Full Text Mega
  • A multi-disciplinary database providing indexing and full-text from several Wilson databases. To find book reviews, first select OmniFile Full Text Mega at the top of the page and use the pulldown menu under Document Type to select Book Review.

Print Resources

• Book Review Digest -- REFERENCE Z1219.B722
  • A digest of book reviews appearing in approximately 80 periodicals, reviewing some 4,000 books annually. Access is by author, title, and subject. Excerpts of the reviews are included. It should be noted that the majority of the reviews indexed do not come from scholarly, academic journals. The library's holdings are from 1985 to the present.

Last updated March 8, 2011