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Book Reviews and Literary Criticism

About | Print Resources | Electronic Resources

About Book Reviews

Pay attention to the credentials of reviews found on the World Wide Web. Good reviews can be found there alongside those written by anyone who has read a book. Some of these sources (such as those posted by readers at Amazon.com) may not be appropriate for research papers. For more authoritative reviews consult the indexes and databases below. If you have questions about whether a review should be used in a scholarly paper, please ask a librarian.

What's the Difference Between a Book Review and Literary Criticism?

Almost any book can have a review about it published, although not all of them do. You may find book reviews of fiction and nonfiction, scholarly and popular works. Reviews vary in length from a couple of sentences to several pages. Literary criticism, on the other hand, is a more in-depth analysis of the work, including more interpretation and evaluation.

Where Should I Begin My Search?

Generally speaking, the older the book the less likely you will find good reviews online. Coverage in electronic databases rarely goes back further than the 1980s, and free web archives are even more recent. For books written before 1995, it is best to start with the print sources below.

Print Resources in Carmichael Reference

Book Review Digest, Library has 1905-present. Index Z 1219 .C95

Book Review Index, Library has 1965-present. Index Z1035.A1 B6

Children's Book Review Index, Library has 1982-1998. Ref. PN1009 .A1 C475

Contemporary Authors, Ref. PN. 771 .C588

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Ref. PN 771 .C59

Horn Book Index, 1924-1989. Ref. PN1009 .A1 A15 Index. (For children's books.)

New York Times Index, Library has 1851-present. Index AI 21 .N45

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Ref. PN 761 .N56. (Coverage of writers who died between 1800-1900.)

Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism, Ref. PN 771 .G27. (Coverage of writers who died between 1900-2000.)

Electronic Links In Carmichael Databases - access restricted to UM Community

Books in Print - Short descriptive reviews Index and Abstract

Expanded Academic ASAP - Reviews of academic and general interest books. Most reviews are full-text published after 1980. To search: In Advanced Search, type "Title of the book" and "book review" (using quotes). Full Text

Lexis-Nexis - Full-text reviews published in popular magazines and newspapers.
To search: In Guided News Search,  select category (step one) Arts & Sports News. Choose source (step two) book, movie, music, & play reviews. Enter title in search boxes. Full Text

LION - Scholarly reviews of English and American poetry, drama and prose. Contains nearly 150 full-text journals and 2,800 author biographies. Full Text

Literature Resource Center - Reviews from both popular and scholarly sources. Includes content from Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume 95 to present. Full Text

MLA International Bibliography - This resource from the Modern Language Association indexes criticism, theory and many other topics. Coverage dates back to 1963. Full Text

Searchable Archives of Reviews on the World Wide Web 

Amazon.com - Reviews from popular publications and from Amazon customers.

New York Times Books - Reviews from 1996 to present. To search: use book search on right-hand of the screen.

Other WWW Sources

Bookreporter.com

Book Sense Picks

Boston Globe Online: Book Reviews

New York Review of Books Online

Powell's Books: Review-a-Day

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask a Librarian for help.