Book reviews, ranging from simple summaries to in-depth critical analyses and evaluations, provide useful information for readers and researchers. Read book reviews to:
The databases listed below will help you find reviews published in scholarly journals, popular magazines, and newspapers. In general, search for book reviews in article databases using the “advanced search” mode and limit by publication type to “book review” or “review.”
Searching
Book Reviews can be challenging to find by searching for an author or an incomplete title (especially a common one!),even in databases dedicated to them or in which you can narrow to “Book Reviews” or “Book Review Articles.” This is because often the results of such a search will include book reviews written BY that author, rather than book reviews written ABOUT that author’s work.
For this reason, I suggest searching for as much of a particular title (Including the Subtitle) as possible, in ANY field, in quotation marks, and limiting to Book Reviews or Book Review Articles as in the facet/focus options on the left.
Running an initial search in UC Library Search is sometimes the fastest way to find book reviews, although other times it has limited results because this search engine has many more records to sift through than the databases listed below. Nonetheless, this is a good first step. Begin with a basic search (from the Library Home Page is fine) with the title in quotes. Once those results come up, select the Reviews link on the left.
To search the databases below, follow the method recommended above, searching for the titles in quotes (and if this does not yield many results, without quotes, just in case, as with Project Muse) and selecting the relevant content, item, document, or type (or similar category!)
Arts: Art Source | Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals | International Index to the Performing Arts | RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Business: Business Source Complete
Communication: Communication & Mass Media Complete | Film & Television Literature Index
Economics: EconLit
Education: Education Source
Environmental Studies: Environment Complete
Ethnic Studies: Ethnic NewsWatch
Gender Studies: GenderWatch
History: America: History and Life | Historical Abstracts
Literature: ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature | Children's Literature Review | Literature Resource Center
Political Science: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Psychology: PsycINFO
Religion & Philosophy: ATLA Religion Database | Philosophers Index
Sciences: Applied Science & Technology Full Text | BIOSIS Previews | MathSciNet
Social Sciences, General: SocINDEX with Full Text | Social Sciences Full Text
Sociology: Sociological Abstracts | Social Services Abstracts
Urban Studies: Urban Studies Abstracts
To find Reviews for Spanish and Portuguese publications, Scielo allows you to limit to Reviews (select advanced search and scroll down to "Tip de Literatura")
