Current Book Reviews
Please note: The following general sources also cover many of the subject-specific fields.
English
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) This link opens in a new window To find book reviews: select “Advanced Search”; then go scroll to the pull-down menu for document type ; highlight “Book Review”.
- Book Review Index(Mugar Reference XZ1035 .A1 F65) An excellent general index to reviews of recent popular and academic books appearing in hundreds of publications from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. BRI includes citations for reviews of any type of book, periodical, or reference work which is at least 50 pages long (poetry, children’s and song books are exceptions to the 50 page rule.) The Index has two parts: the main section includes citations arranged alphabetically by the name of the book author; the second part is a title index. Date coverage: 1965 - present.
- Book Review Digest(Mugar Reference X Z1219 F06) This work is mostly useful for identifying reviews of popular fiction and nonfiction rather than scholarly works. The title provides citations to and excerpts of reviews of current juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction in the English language. The Digest has a subject-title index, which is cumulated annually and in five year cumulations.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window A unique source, this full-text source covers the ethnic, minority and native American press. To find book reviews: click on “Advanced Search”; in the “Type of Article” box enter “Book Review” (in Spanish, in the “Tipo de Artmculo” box, enter “Book Review” [sic]).
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window To find book reviews: select “News,” then “General News” (major English-language periodicals) or “U.S. News” (American English-language periodicals) or “World News” (international news sources) or “Foreign Language News” (sources in non-English languages); type “book review” in headline box.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Project Muse provides full-text access to the scholarly journals of several university presses. One can search each journal individually, a selection of those available, or all of them together. To find book reviews: click on the “Advanced Search”; select “Within Author Reviewed” or “Title Reviewed.” You can also select in the Limit by Type box, “reviews.” NOTE: this may also find books reviewed by the author.
- Readers' Guide / Reader's Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window To find book reviews: Select “Search Plus;” in the “Article type” box select “BOOK-REVIEW.” NOTE: this will also find books reviewed by the author.
- Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) This link opens in a new window To find book reviews: select “Full Search”; then check off pertinent databases; select “General Search;” scroll to the bottom of the page and in the document type box select “Book Review”.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window To find book reviews: select “Full Search”; then check off pertinent databases; select “General Search;” scroll to the bottom of the page and in the document type box select “Book Review”.
- Booklist “Every year [they] review nearly 4,000 books for adults, more than 2,500 titles for children, more than 500 reference books and electronic reference tools, and 1,000 other audiovisual materials.” The searchable site contains some back issues.
- Boston Review This “political and literary forum” includes a fair number of book reviews, primarily of works of poetry and fiction. 2006 - present online. Older issues on microfilm.
- Arts & Letters Daily This humanities-oriented site provides links to book reviews and essays appearing in a wide variety of quality journals available online. It is updated six days a week, and has an archive.
- H-Net Reviews H-Net is an electronic forum for scholarly discussion in the humanities and social sciences. Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences is an online scholarly review journal. Each H-Net discussion network has its own review editor. Once posted to individual H-Net networks, reviews are posted to H-Review and archived on this site.
Non-English
- Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Wissenschaftlicher Literatur.-International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature.-Bibliographie Internationale des Recensions de la Littirature Savante (IBR) (Mugar Reference X Z5051 .I64) Although cumbersome to use, this multi-volume set provides important access to book reviews in non-English language periodicals. To find book reviews: Find the Opera Recensa index, and look for the author of the book. This citation will direct you to a subject in the Index Rerum. In this volume, locate the subject and it will provide the citation for the review. The title of the periodical does not appear, only a number for the periodical listed in the Periodica index. Date coverage: 1971 - present.
- Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur aus allen Gebieten des Wissens.-International Bibliography of Periodical Literature covering all Fields of Knowledge.-Bibliographie internationale de la Littirature Piriodique dans Tous les Domaines Companion set to the above entry, this source is organized by subject, with subject words given in German, French and English; there is also an author index. Book reviews are also indexed here. With a European focus, it sometimes covers periodicals and areas omitted by Anglo-American sources.
- LIBRIS Artikeldatabas This product of the Swedish Royal Library indexes “50,000 [Swedish] articles and reviews in books, periodicals and yearbooks…registered for subject bibliographies produced through LIBRIS.” To find book reviews: either select reviews in “Publication Type,” or enter terms in “Reviews of:”.
- Repére (Mugar Reference X AI7 P65) Previously titled Point de Repére, this multidisciplinary source indexes Quebecois and French-language periodicals. This publication contains a separate book review index. Date coverage: 1984 - present.
- New York Review of Books A biweekly interdisciplinary book review journal, whose site contains “a complete searchable index of the magazine’s contents from 1963 to the present. The site currently contains the full text of all pieces published in the Review since November 1996.” Also available in Mugar Library; current issue in print; older issues on microfilm.
Retrospective Reviews
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974(Mugar Reference X AI3 .C654) A major multi-volume work, this set contains citations to reviews that appeared in more than 450 journals in the subject areas of history, political science and sociology. Entries in author volumes provide title and abbreviated citation to journal; entries in title volumes refer to the author entries. Does not include reviewers’ names.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974(Mugar Reference XAI3 C652) Companion set to the above entry, this collection provides citations to reviews in an additional 150 periodicals covering the fields of philosophy, classics, folklore, linguistics, music and primarily, literature. Includes reviewers’ names but there is no index to reviewers.
- Current Book Review Citations, 1976-1982(Mugar Reference XZ1035 .A1 C86m) Although this annual index only appeared seven times, it is an excellent and eclectic source for reviews of fiction, non-fiction and foreign-language titles published in approximately 1,000 periodicals.
- Index to Book Reviews in England, 1775-1800 (Mugar Reference X Z1035 A1 F675 1997) The first work cites reviews of more than 3,000 titles published in 16 periodicals during the early years of book reviewing. The supplementary volume contains an index to reviews of almost 5,000 works of poetry, fiction and drama reviewed between 1775-1800. The reviews were almost always anonymous so no reviewer names appear.
- Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, 1960-1990(Mugar Reference XZ1219 .F60) Formerly a quarterly and later continued as an annual publication, this work indexed about 600 primarily English-language general and scholarly periodicals in the broad field of the “humanities,” except for archaeology, religion and theology. An asterisk before a citation indicates that earlier volumes also reviewed the title. This impressive publication was indexed by one individual and provides helpful access to publications not generally indexed elsewhere, including some non-English titles. The term “humanities” was originally defined to include history and some social science but beginning with the 1970 volume, the term was restricted to art, biography, personal narratives and memoirs, drama and dance, folklore, language, literature, music, philosophy, travel and adventure.
- New York Times Book Review This database contains the entire text of The New York Times including book reviews published before 2013.
- Nineteenth Century Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, 1890-1899; 1900-1922(Mugar Reference X AI 3 F44) This index covers fifty-one American and British periodicals (1890-1899) with supplementary coverage for 14 journals from 1900-1922. The volumes have author, subject and illustrator indices, in addition to a title index to short stories, novels, plays, and poems. Review references are cited under the author of the book reviewed.
- Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1881(Mugar Reference XAI3 .E82R) A major index to 470 British and American periodicals published during the 19th century. References to reviews of non-fiction books with defined subjects appear under those headings; fiction, poetry and drama appear under the author of the book reviewed.
- Times Literary Supplement Index, 1902-1980(Mugar Reference X AP4 T45 Index) These five print volumes index this well-respected interdisciplinary British book review periodical.
