Fletcher Library at the West Campus
Finding Book Reviews
Best Starting Indexes
These indexes cover publications in all subject areas and are good sources for recent book reviews. Make sure the indexes cover the date of your book's publication! All have some, but not complete, full text.
A comprehensive online index to book reviews that includes more than five million review citations from thousands of publications, with links to more than 630,000 full-text reviews.
Academic
Search Premire (EBSCOhost) (EBSCOHost), 1990 to date.
Magazine and journal reviews.
Reader's
Guide to Periodical Literature,
1986 to date.
Magazine reviews (mostly popular books).
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
Go to: News, find the "Category" drop down menu
and choose "Arts and Sports News." Then find the "News Source"
drop down menu and choose "Book, movie, music and play reviews." Newspaper
and magazine reviews.
NewsBank
Newsfile Collection, 1992 to date.
Book reviews in regional and local newspapers from around the country.
Books in Print, books currently in print.
Short reviews for more popular titles. Reviews come from library publications.
Academic Review Indexes
Choice:
Current Reviews for Academic Librarians, 1988 to
date.
Short reviews for academic titles.
American
Reference Books Annual (ARBA), 1995 to date.
A review source for print and electronic reference works only.
Humanities and Literature Review Indexes
Humanities
Full Text, 1984 to date.
For all of the humanities (literature, religion, philosophy, art, etc.).
Literature Online (LION), 1920 to date.
Go to "Search criticism and reference" for academic reviews about
books on literature and literary authors.
Times
Literary Supplement, 1902-1980.
For older literary and cultural book reviews. Part of the Times of London newspaper.
Subject Specific Indexes for Book Reviews
Many of the specialized subject specific online indexes include book reviews. These are some of the broader subject specific indexes with book reviews.
Business:
ABI/Inform
Global Edition with Full Text, 1985 to date.
Strong on business books, but good for many other kinds of books also.
Education:
Education Full Text, 1983 to date.
Art:
Art Full Text, 1984 to date.
Science:
General Science Full Text, 1984 to date.
Social Sciences:
Social Sciences Abstracts Full Text, 1983 to date.
Indexes for Reviews of Older Books
Periodical
Contents Index Full Text, 1770-1995.
Goes way, way back in time. Some limited full text available online.
Book Review Digest, 1905 to date.
In print only with citations and brief excerpts from reviews only. No full text.
Book Review Index, 1965 to date.
In print only and citations only. No full text.
Web Sites for Reviews of Current Books
BookSpot.com
A well organized collection of book review sites.
New York Times
Book Review
Read the most current weekly edition or search the archive back to 1996. Access
is free, but you must create an account. Archive is hard to find.
Reviews from a British newspaper. Searchable archives.
Another good review source from a British newspaper, with searchable archives.
H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Critical reviews of scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences.
A free web site with reviews of university press books.
The Complete Review: A Literary Salon and Site of Review
Critical reviews of mostly literature. It also provides links to reviews from other sources, such as newspapers.
English language reviews of currently published books in Spanish.
