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Finding Book Reviews

Book reviews appear in magazines and journals near the time of the book’s publication and can be valuable aids in the study of a particular book. Book reviews may include a criticism of the book, a summary of the subject, and even a comparison with other similar books. The resources below are useful for finding book reviews.

Library Databases

Book Review Index (Gale): References to more than 5 million reviews of over 2.5 million books, audiobooks, and e-books.  Represents popular, academic, and professional interests. Indexes over 400 current publications and more than 5,800 publications in total from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.  Coverage: 1965-Present.

Book Review Digest Retrospective (HW Wilson): Bought to you by UW-L Student Differential Tution Funds Contains references to various reviews and quotations or excerpts from the actual review. Emphasis is on works of general interest, and only reviews published 18 months from books publication are listed. Coverage: 1905-1982.

Literary Reference Center (EBSCOhost): Brought to you by BadgerLink Contains more than 675,000 book reviews.  Limit to Book Review in the "Document Type" area. See Book Reviews In EBSCOhost (This icon means that the database tip is a short web movie.) guide for details.

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost): This database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,900 periodicals and a total of more than 12,600 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Limit to Book Review in the "Document Type" area. See Book Reviews In EBSCOhost (This icon means that the database tip is a short web movie.) guide for details.

MasterFile Premier (EBSCOhost): Brought to you by BadgerLink Full-text from nearly 3,000 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural periodicals. Coverage: 1984 to present. Updated: daily. Limit to Book Review in the "Document Type" area. See Book Reviews In EBSCOhost (This icon means that the database tip is a short web movie.) guide for details.

The Historical New York Times (ProQuest): Bought to you by UW-L Student Differential Tution Funds Online, full-image, and searchable content of The New York Times from September 18, 1851 to December 31, 2006. Search by "Review" Document Type to find book reviews.

JSTOR: Bought to you by UW-L Student Differential Tution Funds Access to the full text of over 490 scholarly journals from a variety of disciplines. Coverage: varies (some 19th century) to 2001. Use the Advanced Search Form and check the Review box under "Limit to Type".

Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCOhost): Brought to you by BadgerLink This resource includes full-text from 1,520 newspapers.  Limit to Book Review in the "Document Type" area. See Book Reviews In EBSCOhost (This icon means that the database tip is a short web movie.) guide for details.

Reader's Guide Retrospective (HW Wilson): Bought to you by UW-L Student Differential Tution Funds An index of articles from the popular press.  Limit to Book Reviews in the "Document Types" area. Coverage: 1890-1982.

Indexes to Book Reviews

These are located in the library.

The Times Index (1973-2002) / Index to the Times (1957-1972) / Official Index to the Times (1941-1957) / Palmer’s Index to the Times Newspaper (1790-1941) / Times Index (1785) (Reference Indexes shelf). Index to the London England newspaper, The Times and its supplements, including The Times Literary Supplement.

Public Websites

The following web resources contain book reviews:

Directory of Book Reviews on the Web: Published by AcqWeb.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials: Issues biweekly electronic journal reviews of books and electronic media for young people. Published by Manitoba Library Association.

BookWire: Book industry’s site featuring reviews, book awards and many library or book related links.

H-Net: Humanities and social sciences online.