Book Reviews 

A good critical book or literary review, in addition to describing the narrative or topic of a book, will supply an analytical study of the contents. For non-fiction books, it will also discuss an author's argument, style, evidence, and conclusions. A book/literature reviewer may also compare a particular book with similar works. Book reviews and literary criticism may also judge a work's contribution to a field or knowledge base, and supply substantial biographical information about the author.

• Popular book reviews are found in mainstream publications, ranging from Newsweek to the local newspaper. If you want popular reviews, search publications up to one year after the book was published, reprinted, or issued as a new editon. Note that some, though not all, popular book reviews may be quite short.
• Scholarly reviews are found in academic journals that are peer reviewed or in other authoratative compilations, such as websites maintained by scholarly societies. Search publications for up to three years after the book was published when seeking scholarly reviews.  (What's a scholarly journal? Click here for a text explanation. Click here for an audio explanation).

Tip:  Keep in mind that many books are never reviewed.

Related subject guides: English and American Literature, Theater Resources and Film Studies, for movie reviews and criticism. 

Photo Credit: Denni Schnapp

Reviews on all topics

There are databases and websites dedicated to finding book reviews and criticism, including:

• Book Review Digest Plus 
• Literature Criticism Online
• Book Review Index Online
• Children's Literature Comprehensive Database
• Book, Movie, Music, Play and Video Reviews  
• The New York Review of Books Archive: Some content is free online and some must be purchased.  Once you determine the citation for a review from the NYRB the text is also available via the Auraria Library's print and microformat holdings.
• Bookwire Reviews

A Concise Guide to Writing a Critical Book Review. Thanks to the University of Alberta library for creating this. This page also links to several other similar guides.

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