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How to Write an Academic Book Review

4-minute read

• 13th September 2019

For researchers and postgraduates , writing a book review is a relatively easy way to get published. It’s also a good way to refine your academic writing skills and learn the publishing process. But how do you write a good academic book review? We have a few tips to share.

1. Finding a Book to Review

Before you can write a book review, you need a suitable book to review. Typically, there are two main ways to find one:

• Look to see which books journal publishers are seeking reviews for.
• Find a book that interests you and pitch it to publishers.

The first approach works by finding a journal in your field that is soliciting reviews. This information may be available on the journal’s website (e.g., on a page titled “Books for Review”). However, you can also email the editor to ask if there are book review opportunities available.

Alternatively, you can find a book you want to review and pitch it to journal editors. If you want to take this approach, pick a book that:

• Is about a topic or subject area that you know well.
• Has been published recently, or at least in the last 2–3 years.
• Was published by a reputable publisher (e.g., a university printing press).

You can then pitch the review to a journal that covers your chosen subject.

Some publishers will even give reviewers access to new books. Springer, for example, has a scheme where reviewers can access books online and receive a print copy once a review is published. So this is always worth checking.

2. Follow the Style Guide

Once you know the journal you want to write for, look for the publisher’s style guide. This might be called the “Author Instructions” or “Review Guidelines,” but it should be available somewhere on the publisher’s website. If it is not obviously available, consider checking with the editor.

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When you have found the style guide, follow its instructions carefully. It should provide information on everything from writing style and the word count to submitting your review, making the process much simpler.

3. Don’t Make It About You!

You’d be surprised how often people begin by summarizing the book they’re reviewing, but then abandon it in favor of explaining their own ideas about the subject matter. As such, one important tip when reviewing an academic book is to actually review the book , not just the subject matter.

This isn’t to say that you can’t offer your own thoughts on the issues discussed, especially if they’re relevant to what the author has argued. But remember that people read reviews to find out about the book being reviewed, so this should always be your focus.

4. Questions to Answer in a Book Review

Finally, while the content of a review will depend on the book, there are a few questions every good book review should answer. These include:

• What is the book about? Does it cover the topic adequately? What does the author argue? Ideally, you will summarize the argument early on.
• Who is the author/editor? What is their field of expertise? How does this book relate to their past work? You might also want to mention relevant biographical details about the author, if there are any.
• How does the author support their argument? Do they provide convincing evidence? Do they engage with counterarguments? Try to find at least one strength (i.e., something the book does well) and one weakness (i.e., something that could be stronger) to write about.
• As a whole, has the book helped you understand the subject? Who would you recommend it to? This will be the concluding section of your review.

If you can cover all these points, you should end up with a strong book review. All you need then is to have it proofread by the professionals .

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How to Find Book Reviews: Scholarly Reviews

• Getting Started
• Scholarly Reviews
• Critical Reviews
• General Interest Reviews

About Scholarly Reviews

Scholarly reviews are written for scholars by scholars. These reviews place the book within the scholarly discourse, compare the book to other works in the field, and analyze the author's methodology, interpretations, and conclusions. Due to this amount of engagement with the book, reviews of academic titles may appear two or three years after publication of the book.

The searches in most of the databases below will find scholarly book reviews in addition to general interest and critical reviews. Scholarly reviews will be published in journals, and tend to be longer and more recent.

Best Bet Library Databases

• Library Catalog Search engine for materials in the library. Includes a list of all the books in the library, and a selection of articles. Does not include all articles owned by the library, but it's a good starting place.

Resources for Recent Reviews

In addition to the resources below, see also subject databases related to the discipline of the book.

Resources for Older Reviews

Research Tip: Book Review Searching

Book review searching.

• Search for the title of the book, enclosed in quotation marks ("World's Best Book")
• If the title is not very distinctive, add the author's last name
• Look for limit to "book review" or add search term "review"

Need Help? You can ask!

Other ways to get help:

Call us at 413-597-2505

Text us at 413-648-6071

Stop by during our service hours .

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• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Finding Book Reviews

Introduction, basic sources.

• Additional Sources
• 18th-19th Century British Book Reviews
• Major Review Periodicals and their Indexes

This guide is intended to help Harvard students and faculty find book reviews. Book reviews are published in general/popular magazines (e.g., Newsweek ), scholarly journals (e.g., British Journal for the History of Science ), and in book review periodicals ( New York Review of Books ). The reviews may be brief summaries or long scholarly evaluations.

Find them by consulting periodical indexes and book review indexes. This guide lists some of the major general indexes which include book reviews. Many periodical indexes index book reviews; others do not. See Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe) for general periodical indexes which may index book reviews. Research guides to specialized periodical indexes are listed in the Introduction to Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe) .

Online resources are available through Harvard Library (Harvard ID and PIN required) unless otherwise indicated.

If you want scholarly evaluative book reviews, you may wish to omit reviews in: American Libraries , Booklist , Choice , Library Journal , Publishers Weekly . These reviews do provide good short statements of the subjects of books.

HOLLIS In the Catalog+Articles search, enter the title of your book in quotes ("").  If the title is short and insufficient to specify the book, add the author's name. If there are too many other kinds of articles, choose Reviews under Resource Type on the left side of the screen. Example: Emigrants Sebald.

Academic Search Premier (EBSCOHost) coverage is, largely, from the 1980s to the present. For book reviews enter author and title words. Thus, "Buell and imagination" for reviews of Lawrence Buell's The Environmental Imagination . Results can be limited to book reviews by using the Document Type limitation, but this may exclude some articles of interest, e.g., interviews with the author, which are not strictly speaking book reviews.

Citation Indexes (Web of Science) . Choose General Search. You may enter the authors last name and a word or words from the title. Thus for W. G. Sebald's Vertigo , search Sebald and Vertigo. You may limit to Book Reviews using "Restrict search by languages and document types:". A guide is available: Searching the Citation Indexes (Web of Science) . The Web of Science comprises three indexes: Science Citation Index, (1900- ), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956- ) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975- ). The indexed journals are listed by subject categories in the Thomson Master Journal List .

H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1994- ) offers online reviews of academic books.

JSTOR contains full text book reviews for over 200 journals in many subjects. Journals are covered from their date of inception to around 5 years ago. Choose Search JSTOR, then enter search in the form <rt:book title ra:book author>. Thus, for MacArthur and Wilson's Theory of Island Biogeography search: ra:MacArthur rt:biogeography.

Periodicals Index Online includes several thousand general/humanities/social sciences journals indexed from their dates of inception to 1995.

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• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/bookreviews

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Organizing Research for Arts and Humanities Papers and Theses

• General Guide Information
• Developing a Topic
• What are Primary and Secondary Sources
• What are Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Sources
• Writing an Abstract
• Writing Academic Book Reviews
• Writing A Literature Review
• Using Images and other Media

Purpose of a Book Review

Note: This information is geared toward researchers in the arts and humanities. For a detailed guide on writing book reviews in the social sciences, please check the USC Libraries guide to  Writing and Organizing Research in the Social Sciences , authored by Dr. Robert Labaree.

When writing an academic book review, start with a bibliographic citation of the book you are reviewing [e.g., author, title, publication information, length]. Adhere to a particular citation style, such as Chicago, MLA, or APA.  Put your name at the very end of the book review text.

The basic purpose of a book review is to convey and evaluate the following:

a.     what the book is about;

b.     the expertise of the author(s);

c.     how well the book covers its topic(s) and whether it breaks new ground;

d.     the author’s viewpoint, methodology, or perspective;

e.     the appropriateness of the evidence to the topical scope of the book;

f.      the intended audience;

g.     the arrangement of the book (chapters, illustrations) and the quality of the scholarly apparatus, such as notes and bibliographies.

Point "c. how well the book covers its topics and whether it breaks new ground" requires your engagement with the book, and can be approached in a variety of ways. The question of whether the book breaks new ground does not necessarily refer to some radical or overarching notion of originality in the author’s argument. A lot of contemporary scholarship in the arts or humanities is not about completely reorienting the discipline, nor is it usually about arguing a thesis that has never been argued before. If an author does that, that's wonderful, and you, as a book reviewer, must look at the validity of the methods that contextualize the author's new argument.

It is more likely that the author of a scholarly book will look at the existing evidence with a finer eye for detail, and use that detail to amplify and add to existing scholarship. The author may present new evidence or a new "reading" of the existing evidence, in order to refine scholarship and to contribute to current debate. Or the author may approach existing scholarship, events, and prevailing ideas from a more nuanced perspective, thus re-framing the debate within the discipline.

The task of the book reviewer is to “tease out” the book’s themes, explain them in the review, and apply a well-argued judgment on the appropriateness of the book’s argument(s) to the existing scholarship in the field.

For example, you are reviewing a book on the history of the development of public libraries in nineteenth century America. The book includes a chapter on the role of patronage by affluent women in endowing public libraries in the mid-to-late-1800s. In this chapter, the author argues that the role of women was overlooked in previous scholarship because most of them were widows who made their financial bequests to libraries in the names of their husbands. The author argues that the history of public library patronage, and moreover, of cultural patronage, should be re-read and possibly re-framed given the evidence presented in this chapter. As a book reviewer you will be expected to evaluate this argument and the underlying scholarship.

There are two common types of academic book reviews: short summary reviews, which are descriptive, and essay-length critical reviews. Both types are described further down.

[Parenthetically, writing an academic/scholarly book review may present an opportunity to get published.]

Short summary book reviews

For a short, descriptive review, include at least the following elements:

a.     the bibliographic citation for the book;

b.     the purpose of the book;

c.     a summary of main theme(s) or key points;

d.     if there is space, a brief description of the book’s relationship to other books on the same topic or to pertinent scholarship in the field.

e.     note the author's affiliation and authority, as well as the physical content of the book, such as visual materials (photographs, illustrations, graphs) and the presence of scholarly apparatus (table of contents, index, bibliography, footnotes, endnotes, credit for visual materials);

f.     your name and affiliation.

Critical or essay-length book reviews

For a critical, essay-length book review consider including the following elements, depending on their relevance to your assignment:

b.     an opening statement that ought to peak the reader’s interest in the book under review

c.     a section that points to the author’s main intentions;

d.     a section that discusses the author’s ideas and the book’s thesis within a scholarly perspective. This should be a critical assessment of the book within the larger scholarly discourse;

e.     if you found errors in the book, point the major ones and explain their significance. Explain whether they detract from the thesis and the arguments made in the book;

f.     state the book's place within a strand of scholarship and summarize its importance to the discipline;

g.    include information about the author's affiliation and authority, as well as the physical content of the book, such as visual materials (photographs, illustrations, graphs) and the presence of scholarly apparatus (table of contents, index, bibliography, footnotes, endnotes, credit for visual materials);

h.     indicate the intended readership of the book and whether the author succeeds in engaging the audience on the appropriate level;

i.     your name and affiliation.

Good examples of essay-length reviews may be found in the scholarly journals included in the JSTOR collection, in the New York Review of Books , and similar types of publications, and in cultural publications like the New Yorker magazine.

Remember to keep track of your sources, regardless of the stage of your research. The USC Libraries have an excellent guide to  citation styles  and to  citation management software . 

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• Last Updated: Jan 19, 2023 3:12 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/ah_writing

• Research Guides
• Vanderbilt University Libraries
• Central Library

How to Find Book Reviews

• Academic Book Reviews
• Best Starting Places
• General Sources
• Books Published Before 1990

African-American and Diaspora Studies

• International Index to Black Periodicals This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Document Type. more... less... All current Vanderbilt University students, faculty, and staff have access, both on and off campus.

Anthropology

• AnthroSource This link opens in a new window Archive of all journals, newsletters, and bulletins of the American Anthropological Association.

• Art Full Text and Art Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window Comprehensive resource for art literature: articles, indexing and abstracting of journals, and art dissertations; covering fine, decorative, and commercial art, folk art, photography, film, and architecture. Includes indexing of publications, and citations of book reviews. Indexing of art reproductions provides examples of styles and art movements, including works by emerging artists. more... less... Coverage: 1929 to present. User Limit: 4.

Asian Studies

• Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Publication Type. more... less... Coverage: 1955 to present. User Limit: 6.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window In Advanced Search, select Narrow By "Review."
• Nature Browse reviews by year: Click “Archive” in the headline banner, then click “Article category archive,” then look for “Books and Arts.”
• Science Book reviews may be searched or browsed by ticking the “Book & Web Reviews” box on the Advanced Search page.
• Springer Link This link opens in a new window Journal articles, book chapters, reference works, and protocols. more... less... All current Vanderbilt University students, faculty, and staff have access, both on and off campus.
• Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window Select "Book Review" under Document Type. more... less... All current Vanderbilt University students, faculty, and staff have access, both on and off campus.
• American Chemical Society Publications This link opens in a new window American Chemical Society's peer-reviewed research journals in chemical and related sciences.
• Choice Reviews Online This link opens in a new window ***Individual user accounts will not be ported to the new site. Users will need to create new individual accounts on choicereviews.org. For instructions on how to do so, please see the Choice Reviews Quick-start Guide.*** Reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education. more... less... User Limit: 1. Vendor Tutorials: http://choicereviews.org/faq
• Royal Society of Chemistry Journals Do a search for book reviews in the search field.

Cinema & Media Studies

• FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window Indexes academic and popular film journals. In the Advanced Search limit Document Type to "Review" for best results. more... less... Coverage: 1972 to present.
• Année Philologique This link opens in a new window To find reviews: Search for the title of the book. In the detail record for the book there will be a list of references to book reviews at the end of the entry. more... less... Coverage: 1969 to present. User Limit: Unlimited. Vendor Tutorials: http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/central/classics/APhGuide.html
• Classical Review The Classical Review publishes informative reviews from leading scholars on new work covering the literatures and civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome.

Communication Studies

• Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) This link opens in a new window Content of CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index and other journals in communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study.

Computer Science

• ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window Association for Computing Machinery's access to journals, magazines, transactions, ACM proceedings, SIG proceedings, newsletters, and publications by affiliated organizations.

Earth and Environmental Science

• Earth Formerly known as Geotimes.
• Geology Today
• Nature Geoscience
• EconLit with Full Text This link opens in a new window Comprehensive, indexed bibliography with selected abstracts of the world's economic literature, produced by the American Economic Association. Includes working papers which have been licensed from the Cambridge University Press. more... less... Coverage: 1969 to present. User Limit: Unlimited.
• Education Full Text This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Document Type. more... less... Coverage: 1929 to present. Full text begins 1996. User Limit: 4.

Engineering

• IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window To browse book reviews, click the “Advanced Search” link, then type “book reviews” (quote marks optional) and change the value in the dropdown box to “IEEE Terms.” To search for a review of a specific title, follow the first steps above, then in the second search box enter the book title in quotes, keeping “Metadata Only” in the dropdown box. more... less... Coverage: 1988 to present. User Limit: 15.

English & Theatre

• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1920- (ABELL) This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Limit To. more... less... Coverage: 1920 to present.
• MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Subject indexing of journals, books, proceedings, and dissertations in the areas of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, and the historical aspects of printing and publishing. more... less... Coverage: 1926 to present.

A brief selection of resources is below.  A larger selection is on the book reviews tab of the History Resources research guide.

• America: History and Life This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Publication Type. more... less... Coverage: 1910 to present. User Limit: 6.

Jewish Studies

Mathematics.

• MathSciNet: Mathematical Reviews (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window Pure and applied mathematics and statistics, and applications to other fields, such as physics, computer science, and engineering. Most entries contain an author's abstract or critical review. more... less... Coverage: 1940 to present.
• MathSciNet: Mathematical Reviews (American Mathematical Society) This link opens in a new window Pure and applied mathematics and statistics, and applications to other fields, such as physics, computer science, and engineering. Most entries contain an author's abstract or critical review. more... less... Coverage: 1940 to present.
• Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window A database of articles published in music and related periodicals containing over 160,000 citations to more than 350 journals. Under Advanced Search, limit "Document Type" to "Review" for best results. more... less... User Limit: 5.
• Philosopher's Index This link opens in a new window Click Advanced Search, then select "Book Review" under Publication Type. more... less... Coverage: 1940 to present.
• ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window Scientific, business, technical and medical journals and books, including pre-pub and open access content. The back file of the Business collection is an invaluable archival source for business research. In Advanced Search, limit Article Types to Book Reviews. more... less... All current Vanderbilt University students, faculty, and staff have access, both on and off campus. You can set up your own personal profile which will enable you to save searches and create alerts for new issues.

Political Science

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (WPSA) This link opens in a new window In Advanced Search, choose "Book Review" from Document type. more... less... Coverage: 1975 to present.
• PsycINFO This link opens in a new window In Advanced Search, choose "Review-book" from Record type. more... less... Coverage: 1800s to present.
• ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Religion Database with ATLA Serials (Alumni Access) This link opens in a new window Select "Review" under Publication Type more... less... Access Note: To obtain or reset a VUNetID, submit a request via the link Ask a Librarian with your full name, school name and the year of graduation. Coverage: 19th century to present.
• Religion and Philosophy Collection This link opens in a new window Select "Book Review" under Document Type
• Review of Biblical Literature
• Reviews in Religion and Theology Journal dedicated to the review of theological scholarship
• Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window In Advanced Search, choose "Book Review" from Document type. more... less... Coverage: 1953 to present.
• << Previous: Books Published Before 1990
• Last Updated: Dec 7, 2023 2:13 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/bookreviews

How to Publish a Book Review

Book reviews serve a very important function in the world of scholarly communication. If you are ready to take the plunge, here is a step-by-step guide.

Updated on January 21, 2015

In another article , we presented academics new to publishing with some suggestions regarding how to begin their publication record in the humanities. Here, we will devote more attention to the book review since it is relatively easy to accomplish and an established form of academic publishing that can be added to the publications section of your CV.

Book reviews serve a very important function in the world of scholarly communication. They allow researchers and publishers to publicize their books; they allow journals, societies, and associations in very small subfields to circulate new research among their peers within the larger discipline; and last but not least, they are a way for readers to find out whether they would like to read a particular book.

If you are ready to take the plunge, here is a step-by-step guide to navigating this process:

1. identify a journal in your area of study that publishes book reviews.

If you are a graduate student, this is also a good opportunity for you to begin narrowing your area of study and getting familiar with journals that publish work in that area. If you don't know where to start, search for keywords or authors who interest you in a database and see where this work is getting published.

2. Reach out to the reviews editor

Typically, established researchers will be contacted to review a specific book, but it is perfectly acceptable for you to contact the journal. Most journals have a reviews editor whom you may contact to ask about books he or she would like reviewed. Remember to keep your e-mail to the reviews editor short and to the point, letting him or her know a little bit about yourself as a researcher. Here is a model template you can use if you do not have a particular book in mind:

Dear _______ ,

My name is _____ , and I'm a ___ -year PhD student in [area of study] at [name of university]. My area of research focuses on [1 or 2 sentences about your research].

I would love to have the opportunity to write a book review for [name of journal] if there are any books in my area that you would like reviewed.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

[your name]

[your contact information]

Before you contact the journal, however, make sure to see whether they have a Books Received section -- a lot of journals do. If you are interested in one of these books, make sure to ask whether anyone has already claimed that particular book.

If you have a specific book (usually published within the last two years) that you think will be a good fit for the journal and its audience, feel free to suggest it. Indeed, it's a good idea to be somewhat strategic in your book selection. Pick a book in an area you would like to begin developing expertise in, one that will help you with your qualifying exams, or one that will help you research and write a paper you already have in the works. If the journal is not interested in your idea, let them know that you'd also be open to reviewing one of their received books.

Note that there is no harm in emailing the reviews editor to express your interest in reviewing for the journal; failure to come to an agreement about a particular book will not damage your chances of publishing an article or book review in that journal in the future.

3. Look at other reviews while you are waiting for your book

If you come to an agreement on a book, congratulations! The journal will be sending you a copy of that book in the mail. In the meantime, look at other reviews published by the journal, as they will give you insight into what kind of balance they are looking for in terms of review vs. critique.

4. Read the book and write the review

There isn't a formula for writing a good review. Good book reviews will give a sense of the structure and main ideas of the book while also offering a critique of the ideas. You also don't want to champion or knock down every single idea and argument offered by the author, but rather, you should offer a sense of why it is important to engage with the book. Otherwise, there is no point in bringing attention to it and participating in the conversation. Again, looking over reviews in back issues of the journal is important, as it will give you a sense of what your journal expects of its book reviewers.

You will most likely also be receiving formatting guidelines at some point, either with your book or by email. Make sure to stick with them (the most important is to not go over the word limit) and with the due date, especially if you'd like to contribute another review in the future.

After submitting your review, you will enter a period of waiting. As you may be aware, the publishing world in the humanities operates within time frames all of its own. It could be up to 6 months or more before you even get your essay proofs. Publishers' proofs usually arrive by mail, together with copyright consent forms.

Writing a book review is a great opportunity for graduate students and new academics just starting out to begin to think about their interests and audience. It requires focusing on an area in your discipline and communicating with its audience. In other words, you can begin to participate in a particular research community. Writing a book review is also an excellent introduction to the academic publishing process, as you get first-hand experience communicating with journal editors, working within certain journal guidelines, and working with proofs. AJE wishes you the best of luck!

Celina Bragagnolo, PhD

Teacher at Washington International School

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• Library Home
• Library Guides

How do I find reviews?

• Book Reviews

Getting Started

Reviews for a general audience, reviews for a scholarly audience.

• Film Reviews
• Music Reviews
• Theater Reviews

Do you want to know how a book was received by scholars? Are you trying to determine the quality of a particular book? Or, are you just interested in knowing if a book is worth reading? Book reviews are a great place to start. This guide provides guidance on finding two types of book reviews, those for a general audience and those for a scholarly audience.

Literature and popular works (memoirs, travel writing, manuals, etc.) are often reviewed by journalists or fellow authors upon publication in newspapers or magazines. Use the following databases to find reviews in these publications.

• Book Review Index This link opens in a new window & more less... A comprehensive online guide to book reviews with over five million review citations from thousands of publications.
• Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window & more less... Book Review Digest is a reference database that provides review excerpts and book summaries for current English-language fiction and non-fiction books. Limit of 1 simultaneous user.
• Book Review Digest Retrospective This link opens in a new window 1903-1982 & more less... Indexes and abstracts reviews of English language adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction titles. Reviews are selected from journals in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and library review media.

Other Sources for Book Reviews

Many reviews are published in newspapers and magazines. Use the guides below to find the best databases to search for reviews in these publications.

• How do I find magazines? by Ask a Librarian Updated Feb 17, 2024 354 views this year
• How do I find newspapers? by Ask a Librarian Updated Apr 3, 2024 5069 views this year

Scholarly books are reviewed in academic or peer-reviewed journals and are written by academics. As these reviews place the work in the context of current scholarship, they can take several years to appear after the book was published.

Starting Points

• JSTOR This link opens in a new window Recommended Starting Point . Use Advanced Search and limit to "Reviews". You can also limit by discipline. & more less... A database of back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. All issues of each journal are included in full-text except for the most recent 2-to-5 years.
• IBR Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Multilingual and interdisciplinary index to book reviews, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
• Web of Science This link opens in a new window Conduct your search for book or author, and then limit to "Book Reviews". & more less... Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 10,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage available to 1900. Includes the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Web of Science is especially useful for its citation linking.
• Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Part of Nineteenth Century Index. Indexes the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from 1665 to 1995, including many European titles. Includes links to some full-text articles. Dates of full-text coverage vary by title.
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window & more less... Database corresponds to International Index, 1907 - March 1965; Social Sciences & Humanities Index, April 1965 March 1974; Humanities Index, April 1974 March 1984; and Social Sciences Index, April 1974 March 1983

Other Databases for Book Reviews

We strongly recommend searching the article database or index that covers the academic literature in a specific field for reviews. Use the Advanced Search option and limit to "Book Reviews" or "Reviews".  Find the best database for book reviews in your field by using our subject guides.

• Library Subject Guides

Book Review Indexes in Print

Below are a few print sources for finding book reviews.

• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 & more less... 10 vols. Ed by Evan Ira Farber. Woodbridge: Research Publications, 1982-1984. Covers 150 literature, philosophy, classics, folklore, linguistics & music journals, from England and the US Organized by primary authors or editors and then by book titles.
• Literary and Historical index to American Magazines, 1800-1850 & more less... Ed by Daniel A. Wells & Jonathan Daniel Wells. Westport: Praeger, 2004.

Ask a Librarian

Publications with Book Reviews

• London Review of Books Library has on microfilm 1979 - present.
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Established and emerging theatre pharmacy services: a scoping review

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A McGowan, E Deasy, M Coyle, J O’Connell, Established and emerging theatre pharmacy services: a scoping review, International Journal of Pharmacy Practice , Volume 32, Issue Supplement_1, April 2024, Pages i39–i40, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riae013.049

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Guidelines recommend that pharmacists contribute to perioperative patient care. [1,2] Expansion of perioperative pharmacy services was considered in Tallaght University Hospital following the appointment of a Critical Care & Anaesthesia Chief II Pharmacist. Preliminary research indicated that activities at surgical pre-assessment clinics, in critical care and on inpatient wards are well-documented, while theatre pharmacy services appear comparatively under-developed. Pharmacists are well-placed to promote the safe and cost-effective use of medicines in this high-risk environment. An understanding of the evidence base could provide a foundation on which pharmacy departments seeking to expand their clinical services can build.

To determine the range, extent and nature of theatre pharmacy services internationally, and to describe any reported outcomes of these services.

This scoping review was conducted and reported as per the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and the PRISMA-ScR checklist. The review protocol was registered on Open Science Framework. A search was conducted across electronic (Ovid® MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and PsycInfo) and grey literature databases (Google Scholar, BASE, CADTH, and Google) without limitations on date of publication, study type or language (where English translation available). A manual search of the citation lists of all included publications supplemented the electronic search. One reviewer screened titles and abstracts and carried out data extraction, with a 10% sample screened by a second reviewer. Two reviewers evaluated full texts. Critical appraisal was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool where appropriate. A narrative approach to evidence synthesis was employed. Extracted data about the type of pharmacy service(s) and associated outcomes were studied to inform development of key concepts through which results were presented.

Ninety-two publications were included from 3924 results. Fifty-seven were primary research articles. Most publications were descriptive in nature. Over half of the included publications described services in the United States; the remainder were from Australia, several European countries, Egypt, Morocco, Japan, China and Taiwan. The majority of theatre pharmacy services involved medication management, i.e. procurement, spending, storage, formulary development and distribution of medicines. Clinical services incorporated provision of medicines information, protocol and guideline development, antimicrobial stewardship, education and training of healthcare professionals, engagement with health informatics and medication safety projects, practice-based research and intraoperative emergency support. Reported outcomes included financial savings, improved accountability of controlled substances, improved patient safety and staff satisfaction with the service. Many publications highlighted improved inter-departmental relationships between pharmacy and anaesthesiology. Of the 57 primary research articles, 48 lacked a clear research question and so did not satisfy the MMAT screening criteria. Of the nine assessed, adherence to quality criteria ranged from 40-100%.

Evidence for theatre pharmacy services is extensive and varied. Empirical research of high methodological quality is required to assess the outcomes of these services. Strengths of this review include the use of reporting guidelines and quality appraisal of the evidence. This review may have been limited by the exclusion of non-English language publications. This review collates practical guidance on the development of theatre pharmacy services and highlights facilitators of successful service establishment.

1. Bickham P, Golembiewski J, Meyer T et al . ASHP guidelines on perioperative pharmacy services. Am J Health Syst Pharm 2019;76(12):903-820.

2. Bui T, Fitzpatrick B, Forrester T et al . Standard of practice in surgery and perioperative medicine for pharmacy services. J Pharm Pract Res 2022;52(2):139-58.

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Book Review: Novelist Amy Tan shares love of the natural world in ‘The Backyard Bird Chronicles’

This combination of cover images shows “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan, left, and “The Birds that Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness” by Kenn Kaufman. (Knopf via AP, left, and Avid Reader Press via AP)

This cover image released by Avid Reader Press shows “The Birds that Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness” by Kenn Kaufman. (Avid Reader via AP)

This cover image released by Knopf shows “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan. (Knopf via AP)

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Birdwatching has become a cherished pastime for many since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people stuck at home for months looked out their windows for entertainment and immersed themselves into the natural world, many of them for the first time.

Best-selling novelist Amy Tan of “The Joy Luck Club” fame is among about 45 million Americans the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has estimated are birders, with many investing seriously in their passion by purchasing birdseed and bird watching accessories.

Now, with entries from her nature journal and astonishing illustrations thanks to lessons in bird illustration, Tan has published “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” about an obsession that dates back to before the pandemic.

Tan’s book is the latest to grab onto the popularity of birdwatching.

It joins “Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World,” last year’s memoir by Christian Cooper , who famously clashed with a white woman walking her dog in New York’s Central Park. The confrontation came on May 25, 2020, the same day George Floyd was killed after a knee on his neck by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Coming out on May 7 is another book sure to delight amateur naturalists: “The Birds that Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness” by Kenn Kaufman.

Kaufman, an avid birder since he was a boy, has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including his own Kaufman Field Guides.

In his latest, he tells of the vicious competition among naturalists and John James Audubon, who is known for his efforts in the 1800s to describe and illustrate all the birds he could find.

But amid the rivalries, fraud and plagiarism, “The Birds in America,” Audubon’s seminal collection of 435 life-size prints, missed many winged creatures that were not discovered for years, including some common songbirds, hawks and sandpipers.

Tan could only identify three bird species when she first embraced birdwatching as a pastime.

The number of species she could identify steadily grew to 63 as she lured more birds to the area behind her home with a view of San Francisco Bay, dangling seed and nectar feeders from a stand and planting her rooftop garden with succulents sporting white, yellow and pink blossoms.

Her winged visitors amid the fragrant Meyer lemon trees and lavender bushes have included an American robin, mourning doves, dark-eyed Juncos, a purple finch and orange crowned sparrows.

“I’ve been spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing,” she notes at one point. “How can I not? Just outside my office, four fledgling scrub jays are learning survival skills.”

“We’ve been shut down by COVID-19, required to stay home,” she wrote on March 19, 2020. “Almost everything seems like a potential transmitter of disease and death — the groceries, a door knob, another person. But not the birds. The birds are a balm.”

Like a loving mother, Tan watches in delight as fledglings learn how to get get food from her patio cage feeders, She worries whether they’ll be affected by smoke from fires in California’s north.

Tan eventually becomes controlled by birds, feeding them 700-800 squirmy beetle larvae a day at a cost of some $250 a month. She leaves alpaca yarn outside so an Oak Titmouse can line her nest with the soft fuzz. Tan hopes that the mealworms, tiny balls of suet and sunflower chips she leaves on the patio will ensure more fledglings reach adulthood.

As time passes, Tan becomes intentionally curious in nature, fascinated as a pair of Great Horned Owls take up residence in her backyard, depleting the rat population as they regurgitate pellets comprised of bits of indigestible bone and fur.

She learns to stay motionless for long periods, even in the cold, to silently observe.

“One must suffer for beauty, happily, for birds,” she writes.

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Bestselling novelist Paul Auster, author of 'The New York Trilogy,' dies at 77

"You think it will never happen to you," Paul Auster wrote about aging and mortality in his 2012 book Winter Journal. He's pictured above in New York in April 2007. Nicholas Roberts/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

"You think it will never happen to you," Paul Auster wrote about aging and mortality in his 2012 book Winter Journal. He's pictured above in New York in April 2007.

Best-selling author Paul Auster, whose novels addressed existential questions of identity, language, and literature and created mysteries that raised more questions than they answered, has died. He was 77.

His death was confirmed by friend Jacki Lyden on behalf of Auster's family.

A leading figure in his generation of postmodern American writers, Auster wrote more than 20 novels, including The New York Trilogy , which included his 1985 breakthrough book, City of Glass, and his ambitious 2017 novel 4 3 2 1, which ran close to 1,000 pages.

"I think he was a really exciting and compelling voice of his generation," says Alys Moody, a professor who teaches postwar American literature. "Auster will be remembered for being one of the leading figures in a post-modern tradition that's reimagining how central language is, and how central writing is, and how central above all storytelling is."

Author Interviews

Paul auster meditates on life, death and near misses.

Paul Auster tackles homelessness and broken hearts

Auster was born in 1937 in Newark, N.J., to Jewish middle-class parents of Austrian descent. After he graduated from Columbia University with undergraduate and Master's degrees, he moved to Paris. There, he supported himself by translating French literature. Auster returned to the United States in 1974, part of a disillusioned generation. In a private 1992 interview with me, he said his novel Leviathan was about a character much like himself: "Someone filled with a kind of idealistic hope about what could be done about the future of the country and the world, who saw all these dreams bit by bit be dismantled by subsequent political events."

In his 20s, Auster published his own essays, poems, and translations. A strange event in 1980 led to his first novel.

"I was living alone in Brooklyn. And I did receive a telephone call," he recalled. "And the person on the other end asked if he had reached the Pinkerton Agency. And, of course, I said no and hung up. But after the second or third time, I said, well, what if I said Yes? And that was the genesis of the novel."

The story of that novel, City of Glass, is set in motion when the main character, a detective fiction writer named Quinn, gets a late night phone call:

Book Reviews

'winter journal': paul auster on aging and mortality, a personal 'report from the interior' of author paul auster.

"I would like to speak to Mr. Paul Auster." "There's no one here by that name." "Paul Auster. Of the Auster Detective Agency." "I'm sorry," said Quinn. "You must have the wrong number." "This is a matter of utmost urgency," said the voice. "There's nothing I can do for you," said Quinn. "There is no Paul Auster here." "You don't understand," said the voice. "Time is running out."

The writer in the novel takes on the identity of the detective, who sets out to solve the mystery of "what is reality?" He was sometimes criticized for the bizarre coincidences in his work, but the events of his life, he said, outstripped the implausibility in his fiction.

"When I was about 13 or 14 years old and, I was off at a summer camp, and we got caught in a storm. And a boy standing next to me was killed by a bolt of lightning. Dropped dead. Struck down by the sky. I think maybe that informs my work more than any book I have ever read," he explained.

4 lives in parallel run through ambitious '4 3 2 1'

1 character, 4 different lives in paul auster's '4 3 2 1', 1 character, 4 different lives in paul auster's '4 3 2 1'.

Auster also wrote and co-directed a handful of independent films. He was never at a loss for words. In 2017, he published an 880-page novel called 4 3 2 1 that told the story of one main character in four different versions, in alternating chapters. When he finished that book, he decided to take a break from fiction, so he began writing a 780-page biography of 19 th century author Stephen Crane.

"I have tried in my books to turn myself inside out as much as possible," he said. "And not to hide behind style, tricks — whatever you might call it."

Auster, whose literary influences included Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, will be remembered for the purity of his language, and the seriousness of his intent.

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Chemical Society Reviews

Contact-electro-catalysis (cec).

* Corresponding authors

a CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China E-mail: [email protected]

b School of Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

c School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0245, USA

Contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) is an emerging field that utilizes electron transfer occurring at the liquid–solid and even liquid–liquid interfaces because of the contact-electrification effect to stimulate redox reactions. The energy source of CEC is external mechanical stimuli, and solids to be used are generally organic as well as in-organic materials even though they are chemically inert. CEC has rapidly garnered extensive attention and demonstrated its potential for both mechanistic research and practical applications of mechanocatalysis. This review aims to elucidate the fundamental principle, prominent features, and applications of CEC by compiling and analyzing the recent developments. In detail, the theoretical foundation for CEC, the methods for improving CEC, and the unique advantages of CEC have been discussed. Furthermore, we outline a roadmap for future research and development of CEC. We hope that this review will stimulate extensive studies in the chemistry community for investigating the CEC, a catalytic process in nature.

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Z. Wang, X. Dong, W. Tang and Z. L. Wang, Chem. Soc. Rev. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D3CS00736G

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