Pollak Library Research How Do I...

How do I find book reviews?

This page explains the process of locating book reviews in Pollak Library.

1. Determine the database to search by answering the following questions:

When was the book published?
Reviews usually come out within 2-3 years of a book's publication date, so choose a database (or paper index) that covers that time period.

What type of review do you need? (general interest or scholarly)
General interest reviews may be found in newspapers or magazines, like the New York Review of Books or the Los Angeles Times. Scholarly reviews are found in journals and tend to be more in-depth.

Which field of study does your book fall into? (history, environmental studies, etc.)
Some of the subject-specific databases listed by Major/Subject under Find Articles on the library home page may have reviews of your book.

2. Pick an appropriate database.

General Sources for Finding Reviews

3. Use a flexible search strategy.

Since the author and title of the book review are not the same as the author and title of the book being reviewed, you may need to try either of the following strategies:

Search the book author's last name and several distinctive words from the book title using Keyword or All fields, depending on the database.

Search the book's author as Author and the book's title as Keyword or All Fields.

For additional help, see:

How do I find newspaper articles?

How do I find articles by topic?