Research Guides: Book Reviews & Literary Criticism: A Guide to Selected Resources: Find Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Use this guide to locate reviews and literary criticism of popular and/or scholarly books. Most popular books are reviewed within six months of publication. Scholarly books are often reviewed as late as two to five years after publication.

New York Review of Books (1963-present)
The New York Review of Books publishes essays and reviews of books. Described as "the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language." The essays and reviews are written by renown writers and intellectuals. Use the advanced search features to limit results by date, author, title or subject.
New York Times Book Review (1997-present)
The Book Review is part of the Sunday New York Times.

Finding Book Reviews

Healey Library provides access to numerous databases which contain book reviews. Although each database is different, there are some general search strategies which work across the databases.

If you are looking for reviews about a single author, type the author's name in the search box.
If you are looking for a review of a specific book, type the book's title in the search box.
Depending on the author and title you are searching, you may need to narrow your search more.
If the author or title are very common, select "title" as a search field. This will result in the least number of reviews.

The following databases contain options to limit a search by Document Type, and Book Reviews or Reviews. These options are often located on the Advanced Search page.

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
On the Advanced Search page under More Options, select Document Type(s), Book review.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
On the Advanced Search page under Limit your results, select Document Type, Book Review.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) collection documents the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction, to provide digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1912. The collection includes 5 series by date and 50 subject subsets, which can be searched separately or together.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1 (1684-1820)
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 2 (1821-1837)
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3 (1838-1852)
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 4 (1853-1865)
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5 (1866-1912)
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Most EBSCO databases contain a menu of document types, including "book review" on the advanced search page.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Limit your search to reviews by using Advanced Search and checking Reviews under Limit By: Item Type.
New York Times (1851 - 2020) (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Reviews from the Sunday New York Times, 1851-2011. Contains Document type in a menu on the Advanced Search page. Within document type, check Review.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE provides full-text and allows you to limit your search to book reviews. On the Advanced Search page, find Content Type, on the left hand side, and check Reviews.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Contains an option to limit by Document Type in the field menu next to the search box. Select Document Type then select Book Review or Review.