LibGuides: Reference Resources: Book Reviews

Current Book Reviews

Use the main search box on the Libraries homepage at odu.edu/library, to find book reviews in many disciplines. Type the title of the book in quotation marks [example: "I am Malala"] as a keyword and click Search. Citations marked as "Reviews" or "Articles" can help you find out how the book was reviewed.

Other Book Reviews

Major review sources list hundreds of thousands of book reviews. Take note of the dates covered by these indexes. For the most current book reviews, use the main search box (Monarch OneSearch) above or Academic Search Complete located under the Book Reviews in Library Databases tab.

New York Review of Books
Current (Restricted to ODU)
The New York Review of Books is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science, and current affairs.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive
1902 - 2014 (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Offers comprehensive coverage of the latest and most important publications - in every subject, in several languages - as well as reviewing current theatre, cinema, music, and exhibitions. This is the essential companion for studying and researching literary activity and critical opinion makers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
New York Times w/ Index
1851 - 2015 (Restricted to ODU)
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. The Historical New York Times with Index (1851-1993) provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images from the Historical New York Times.

New York Times Book Review Index [in print]
Call Number: General Coll/Floor 4: Z1035.A1N4
Covers the years 1896-1970. Updated by Book Review section in New York Times Index.
Book Review Digest [in print]
Call Number: Periodicals/Floor 2: Z1219.C96
Covers the years 1905 to 2009.
Book Review Index [in print]
Call Number: Periodicals/Floor 2: Z1035.A1B6
Covers the years 1965 to 2008.
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals [in print]
Call Number: General Coll/Floor 4: Z1035.A1C6 and C65.
Covers the years 1806-1974.

Of course, book reviews will also be included in our subject databases. You should be able to limit your search to REVIEWS or BOOK REVIEWS.

Academic Search Complete
1887 - present (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Provides a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary database with full-text and peer-reviewed journals as well as indexing and abstracts for monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887 and searchable cited references for nearly 1,000 journals.
MasterFILE Premier
1975 - present (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Provides access to general periodicals covering business, education, health, science,and more; reference books including the World Almanac & Book of Facts; biographies; primary source documents; Magill Book Reviews; as well as an image collection of photos, maps, and flags.
Factiva
Coverage varies (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Provides current and retrospective news stories, periodical articles, and company and industry financial data covering virtually every subject category.
Nexis Uni
Varies (Restricted to ODU)
Lexis Nexis Academic has been up graded to Nexis Uni. Nexis Uni provides a more personalized experience, intuitive discovery, and a more collaborative research environment. Nexis Uni features news, business, and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Offers an intuitive, engaging research experience on a wide range of devices. Students can create individual user IDs and passwords to enable setting of Alerts, saving searches and bookmarking documents of interest.
JSTOR
Coverage varies by journal (Restricted to ODU)

Artstor is now part of the JSTOR platform. (As of August 1, 2024.)

Provides a scholarly journal archive for full-text journals through the following collections: Arts & Sciences, Biological Sciences, Health & General Sciences, Language & Literature, and Life Sciences. The JSTOR Arts and Sciences I-IV, X Collections are funded through the generous support of the Friends of the Library.
Literature Resource Center
Varied (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Includes full-text journal articles, literary criticism, reviews, biographical information, and overviews on over 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world. Includes fulltext information from many standard reference sources (e.g., Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism) and from books in Twayne's Author Series.
Project Muse
Coverage varies (Restricted to VIVA/ODU)
Project MUSE provides digital humanities and social science content. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals and books. Project MUSE books are fully integrated with MUSE's scholarly journal content.
Web of Science
Coverage varies by Index (Restricted to ODU)
Provides access to Science Citation Index 1900-Present, Social Sciences Citation Index 1900-Present, Arts & Humanities Citation Index 1975-present, and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Perform cited reference searches by author, work, year, volume, issue, page, and title.

C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
Coverage varies by index (Restricted to ODU)
Creates integrated bibliographic coverage of books, official publications, and articles published in journals, magazines, and newspapers, from indexes such as the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, Palmer's Index to the Times and Periodicals Index Online.

19th Century Readers Guide+
Call Number: Periodicals/Floor 2: AI3.R385
Covers 1890-1899.

America: History and Life with Full Text
Select Review under Publication Type or Book Review under Document Type.

Reviews in History
Produced by the School of Advanced Study's Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, Reviews in History is a searchable, open access journal that publishes reviews and reappraisals of significant work in all fields of historical interest.

Helpful books, links, and services for writing book reports and reviews:

How to Write Book Reports by Harry Teitelbaum
Call Number: General Coll/Floor 4: PE1478.T45
ISBN: 0134414039
Publication Date: 1989-03-01
Writing Literature Reviews-5th Ed by Jose L. Galvan
Call Number: Library General Coll./Floor 3: H61.8 .G34 2013
ISBN: 1936523035
Publication Date: 2012-09-01

Indiana University: Writing Book Reviews
Writing a Book Review
From the OWL at Purdue University
ODU Writing Center
Make an appointment with the Writing Center for help with the writing process.