Finding Book Reviews

            Book reviews are reactions to or criticisms of a book written by an author's contemporaries, usually a critic and scholar in the same field.  The review usually appears in a periodical or newspaper.  Style and content, or in the case of fiction, character development and plot are usually discussed.

            Two sources of finding book reviews in periodicals are Book Review Index and Book Review Digest.  In each source, books are listed by author.  A key to abbreviations can be found in the front of each annual volume.

            There is frequently a time delay between the publication of a book and its listing in a book review source.  For instance, books published in 1978 might appear in the 1979 volume of an index.

BOOK REVIEW INDEX

             Books are listed alphabetically by author's name.  Each entry includes the title of the book reviewed, an abbreviation identifying the publication in which the review appeared, the publication's volume number and date, and the page number on which the review appears.  Entries are cumulated in one set from 1965 to 1984, and includes a title index.  Each year from  1985 to the present is a separate volume.

             The first entry below shows you that a review of Charles Grandison Finney 1792-1875 by Keith Hardman appeared in the American Historical Review, volume 93, in June 1988, on page 771.

Always check the front of the volume to find the full title of the journal in which the book review appears.  Don't waste time by guessing wrong.

BOOK REVIEW DIGEST

            Book Review Digest provides much more information for each entry.  After the book's title and brief descriptive note, quotations from selected reviews are included along with citations to the periodicals in which the review appeared.

            An index of subjects and titles is included in each volume.  A separate cumulative index covers the period 1905-1974 and another covers 1975-1984.

            The example below was taken from the 1988 Book Review Digest.  It includes an excerpt from a review of Keith Hardman's Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875; Revivalist and Reformer that appeared in Library Journal, volume 112, on June 1, 1987.  The article appears on page 119 of the journal, was written by John R. Muether, and is 150 words in length.

           For other sources of book reviews in particular subject areas, consult Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index, General Science Index, Business Periodicals Index, Education Index, Art Index.  In recent years, they each have a book review section at the end of the annual bound volume and each paperback update.