Finding book reviews

 

Printed indexes to book reviews

 

1. Book Review Digest.  Index Z1219 .C95  (1905 – present).

 Excerpts of and citations to reviews of current fiction and nonfiction that appear in around 100 periodicals.

 

2. Book Review Index.  Index Z1035 .A1 B6 1965 (1965 – present).

Citations of reviews in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences, appearing in over 470 journals.

 

3. Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities.  Index Z1035 .A1 I63 (1960-1990).

Citations of reviews in around 400 journals in the humanities.

 

 

Online indexes & databases that pick up book reviews (some full text)

 

1. Books in Print with Book Reviews

This database lists books that are in print and includes full text reviews for some of them.

 

2. General Databases:

The following databases index a broad range of magazines, newspapers, and journals, including the book reviews contained in these publications.  Full text is available for many.  In most cases you can go to Advanced Search and specify that you are looking for book reviews.

Academic Search Elite

Expanded Academic Index

Lexis Nexis Academic

Proquest Research Library

 

3. Literature Resource Center

Entries under “Literary criticism” include a mixture of reviews and criticism of works (look carefully!).  Links are available to the full text of some reviews.

 

4. America: History and Life (1964-present) and Historical Abstracts (1955-present)

These history databases include citations to book reviews in history journals.

 

5. amazon.com - fun to visit to see personal reviews; please don't use for this assignment.

 

 

REMEMBER: Use Periodicals @ BSC to find the full text of articles, in any format (search by Journal Name).

 

Finding contextual information: A handful of suggested reference sources

 

 

Biographical information

 

Literature Resource Center

Includes biographical, bibliographical and contextual information from Contemporary Authors and the Dictionary of Literary Biography; full-text criticism from the Contemporary Literary Criticism Select; full-text journal articles from over 170 literary journals; essays, work overviews, plot summaries and explications; links to related Web sites; and the full text of Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.  Searchable by author, title, keyword, etc.

 

Biography and Genealogy Master Index

Tells you which reference sources contain biographical information.

 

Check the BSC Library Catalog for more in-depth information on authors’ lives (search for the author as a Subject).

 

 

Historical Information (about the time in which a work was written, or events portrayed therein)

 

Literature Resource Center  includes a handy (if somewhat limited) timeline feature

 

Encyclopedias in the library reference section include…

§         Encyclopedia of the United States in the 20th Century (Ref. E 740.7 .E53 1996)

§         Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age (Ref. E661 .H59 2003)

§         Encyclopedia of the American Civil War (Ref. E468 .E53 2000)

§         Historical dictionary of the Civil War (Ref. E468 .J777 2002)

§         Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience
(Ref. DT14 .A37435 1999)

§         Chronology of African-American history (Ref. E185 .H64 1991)

§         Encyclopedia of African-American civil rights (Ref. E185.61 .E54 1992)

§         Britannica Online contains succinct, authoritative summaries of various topics and events

 

Check the BSC Library Catalog for more in-depth information on topics such as the Gilded Age, populism, civil war campaigns, Appomattox, segregation, race relations, etc.