Literature & Languages Guide: How to Find Book Reviews
Introduction
A book review describes and critiques a book's content and usually appears shortly after the book is published. These reviews can be found in various periodicals such as magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. A book review can be a valuable item for providing a brief description of a work and can also give insight into a how well a particular work was received near the time of publication.
In order to find a book review, you will need to know:
- Title and/or author of a book
- Year of Publication
Two ways to find this information:
- By looking on the title page of the book itself
- By looking the book up in Minerva, U of L's catalog available on the Libraries' website (library.louisville.edu).
Remember that if you have any questions you can always consult the Reference Desk on the first floor of Ekstrom (852-6747).
Once you have the above information, there are two sources you can use for finding a review:
Using Book Review Indexes in Print Form
Book review indexes are "indexes"; that is, they index reviews and thus, contain citations that will tell you in what periodical the review appears. Note, book review indexes DO NOT CONTAIN the reviews themselves. To find the actual review you will need to consult the periodical listed in the citation. Below are four book review indexes in print you can consult. All of these are on Table 14 in the Reference Department on the first floor of Ekstrom.
Book Review Digest (1906-current)
Ekstrom Library Reference Z1219 .C692
Book Review Index (1965-current)
Ekstrom Library Reference Z1035. A1 B6
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals (1802-1974)
Ekstrom Library Reference Z1035 .A1 C642 1982
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals (1886-1974)
Ekstrom Library Reference Z1035 .A1 C64
After choosing an index, find the volume or issue that matches the time/year of publication for your book. Keep in mind that after a book is published, a year or more may elapse before a review appears; thus, a book published in 1999 may be found in the 2000 or 2001 volume. Citations in the review indexes are arranged alphabetically by the book author's last name. There may also be a title index in the back of each volume. A typical citation may look like this:
Sontag, Susan In America For Aff-v79-p159[51-500]
- Sontag is the author of the book, In America, which is being reviewed.
- The abbreviation "For Aff" stands for the journal, Foreign Affairs, in which the review appears.
- This review is on page 159 of volume 79 (v79) and the numbers in brackets represent the estimated length of the review, 51-500 words.
Note, each book review index may abbreviate journals differently and it's important to consult the abbreviations list in the front of the volume/issue.
Finding Reviews in the Online Databases
You can also find reviews in many of the databases available through the library's website. Below is a short list of some of the databases that index reviews:
Using Ebsco Academic
This is a general subject database that indexes reviews (some full-text) appearing in magazine and journal articles and covers the dates 1984-Present (full-text 1990-Present). To find indexed reviews in Ebsco from U of L's homepage you will need to:
- Click All Databases A-Z, select E, and then choose Ebsco Academic.
- Click Advanced Search tab.
- In the search box enter the title or author of the book
- In the Document Type box, click on the down arrow, select Book Review, and then perform your search
Keep in mind when searching for reviews using the databases, not every return will be full-text. If the full-text for a result is not offered, you will have to note the journal or magazine in which the review appears, go back to Minerva and perform a "Journal Title" search to see if U of L subscribes to the periodical and has the corresponding volume/issue needed.