Finding Book Reviews
Book reviews are published in book review journals, magazines and academic journals which have book review sections, newspapers, and on the Web.
Ways to locate book reviews
Some of the sources listed below contain the book reviews themselves; others are indexes which will tell you exactly where they may be found.
Databases
InfoTrac Onefile
Academic journals, magazines and some newspapers covering a range of disciplines. Contains much full-text.
To limit your search to book reviews: Enter the author's name or main words of the title, and add book reviews as an additional search term
e.g. Alias Grace and book reviews
ProQuest
ProQuest is a suite of databases which can be searched together or separately. Contains much full-text.
To limit your search to book reviews: choose Advanced Search. In the first search box, type the title of the book. In the second search box, select 'article type' and type in book review.
Web of Science
Indexes academic journals and editd books. Provides links into lLibrary Catalogue for locating full text.
Select General Search. Under Topic, enter words from the title of the book. In the Restrict Search drop-down menu , select book review as the document type.
JSTOR
Full text of selected academic journals, often from their first issue to 3-5 years of the present.
Choose Advanced Search. Type the title of the book as 'all of the words' or 'exact phrase' , and click the check box for 'Reviews'.
Newspapers
Factiva
Factiva is an excellent source for book reviews in newspapers. It contains the full-text of thousands of newspapers worldwide.
- In the search box, type [title of book] and book review
eg: da vinci code and book review. - Adjust the date drop-down menu to reflect the publication year +2 of the book. If unsure, choose 'All Dates'.
New York Times Archive
Full text of articles published in the New York Times, 1851 - 2003.
1. Type the title of the book into the search box,
2. Under Search Options, choose to search 'citation and abstract',
3. Select as document type 'reviews'
Times
Index (print)
AP 4 .T583 index (1973 - 2002)
Look up 'Book Reviews', then search by the title of the book.
Journals
Journals which are devoted to book reviews.
Book Review Index at Z 1007 .B724 is the best print index for locating book reviews.
Searching for a book review will be quicker if you know its approximate publication date.
- Choose the volume for the year in which the book was published. If the book does not appear in that volume, check the following 2 years.
- Book Review Index's main index is by author, but there is also a title index.
- Write down the details for the book review that you want to locate. The title of the journal in which the review appears will probably be abbreviated, eg TLS Ap2 '93 p47. A volume number and/or date, plus page number will be given. There is usually a list of abbreviations at the beginning of the volume. In the above example, TLS stands for Times Literary Supplement, and the review appeared in the April 2 1993 issue, on page 47.
- Use the Library Catalogue to do a Journal Title Begins With search for the journal/newspaper. Be aware that the Library does not necessarily hold the journals/newspapers referred to in the index.
Other print indexes for book reviews
Print and online:
- Choice Z 1039 .U5 .C545
- New York Review of Books Z 1035 .A1 .N532
- New York Times Book Review
- Times
Literary Supplement
( online from 1994- )
To search the online version, type the title of the book into the search box. A list of possible matches will come up. (NB: If there is no real match you will still get 'results' that contain any of your search words. If one of the matches looks possible, click on it, and on the following screen enter UC's username and password for the TLS. Once you have logged in, you can view that book review plus any others in the same session. - Women's
Review of Books
New Zealand Book Reviews
Recent reviews of New Zealand books (1987-) can be located through:
Index New Zealand
Major index for journal and newspaper articles published in New Zealand
and the Pacific.
To limit to book reviews:
- Select Advanced Search.
- Type book reviews in Subject (Descriptor) field and combine this with either the author or book title as a 'keyword anywhere' search.
e.g. to search for book reviews of the bone people:
For pre-1987 book reviews, try Index to New Zealand Periodicals.
Web Sites
Amazon.com
This online bookstore has a massive range, and categorises its books by subject or genre. Many books have reader reviews to help gauge what the book is about and its quality.
ACQ's Directory
of Book Reviews on the Web
This site maintains a large and well organised collection of links to book review sites on the web. It is organised by field of study or literary genre.
BOOKNews on the Internet
This site covers to the fields of science, technology and medicine. Books are organised by subject and then by publication date. Each book is provided with a brief review.