Research Guides: Find Book Reviews: Guide

Introduction

Book reviews are articles that critically examine published works.

When searching for book reviews, consider starting the search with the year that the book was published. Since book reviews may be published several years after the book’s release, it is a good idea to check the 3-4 succeeding years as well.

Book reviews of recent publications may be found in electronic databases and indexes. Reviews for older publications are often best found through print indexes of journals. Note that some databases, such as JSTOR, are exceptions to the rule, as they carry early volumes of journals.

Getting Started

Gathering the following information will aid you in the search process:

Complete title of the book
Author’s name
Publication date
Subject of the book

If you don’t have this information about the book, you may be able to get more information from Hawaii Voyager, the library’s online catalog.

Database Search Hints

Try a keyword search for the title of the book and the word “review” or “reviews.”
In some databases, you can limit the search to document type. For example, you can search the MLA International Bibliography database by limiting the search to “book article.”
You can also search for book reviews in subject-specific databases or indexes. For example, Business Source Premier would be good place to look for reviews of new business books.
Some of the databases and indexes offer full-text book reviews, while others provide citations and sometimes abstracts.
If the full text is not included in the database, use the button to locate an electronic copy of the article.

To get the full review from databases and indexes that provide only citation information, follow these steps:

Try the “find it” link to locate an electronic copy of the book review.
If an electronic copy is not available, search the Hawaii Voyager library catalog to see if that particular journal is included in our print collection.
When you find the journal in the catalog, note the call number. You will need this to locate the journal and the book review.
Make sure you have written down the citation information for the book review (journal name, volume, year, page numbers, etc.)
If we do not have the journal in the print collection, you may place a request for the library to obtain the review for you using our interlibrary loan service, or look for other reviews.

Selected Electronic Resources for Book Reviews

Academic Search Complete
Provides full text for more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals, covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
A new EBSCO interface is coming soon. Preview the new EBSCO interface now
Alt-PressWatch
Alt-PressWatch is a full text database comprised of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. Current coverage includes approximately 100 titles going back to 1995. NOTE: Only 2 users allowed at one time. If you cannot login, try again later.
NOTE: If you use an ad blocker, you may receive error messages when using certain functions in ProQuest databases. Please whitelist search-proquest-com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu and search.proquest.com to avoid such errors.
JSTOR
JSTOR provides full-text journal backfiles in many disciplines (humanities, social sciences, business, general science and more).
Nexis Uni
Lexis Nexis database of full text articles back more than 20 years from over 5600 publications, including many of the world's major newspapers.
MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography
This is the preeminent online index for books and articles about modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It dates back to 1963 and contains over 1.6 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals). Includes indexing for New York Review of Books (1989-present) and New York Times Book Review (1989-present).
It is compiled by the staff of the MLA Department of Bibliographic Information Services with the cooperation of more than 100 contributing bibliographers in the United States and abroad. Such international coverage is represented by literature from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, and while the majority of records are from English-language publications, at least sixty other languages are represented including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. Includes access to MLA Directory of Periodicals.

New York Times Sunday Book Review
Searchable 1981-present.
Newspaper Source
This collection provides selected full text coverage for more than 240 newspapers and other sources. It includes cover-to-cover full text for USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor and The Times (London) as well as selected full text from more than 180 regional newspapers including: Boston Globe, Detroit Free Press, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury News, etc. Full text transcripts are also included from Face the Nation, CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes, and more.

OneSearch Manoa
OneSearch Manoa is a discovery tool that searches the Voyager online book catalog, digital collections, e-resources, databases, and many other resources in one easy search. OneSearch also links to full-text content in our collections.

Print Resources for Book Reviews

The following print resources focus on book reviews:

Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities (1960-1990) / Reference Z1035 .A1 I63
Book Review Digest (1905-2005) Reference Z1219 .B644
Book Review Index (1965-present) Reference Z1035 .A1 B6
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals (1802-1974) Reference AI3 .C652
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals (1886-1974) Reference Z1035 .A1 C64
Index to Book Reviews in Historical Periodicals (1973-1974) Z6205 .B73
New York Times Book Review (1896-1970) Z1035 .A1 N473 (See the New York Times Index for more recent reviews)

Other resources that might include book reviews include:

Humanities Index (1974-1993, June 2002-present) Reference AI3 .H85
Nineteenth Century Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-1899) Reference AI3 .R47
New York Times Index (1851-present) Reference AI21 .N42
Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906) Reference AI3 .P7
Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature (1901-present) Reference AI3 .R48
Social Sciences Index (1907-present) Reference AI3 .S65

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