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Find book reviews

Determine the publication date.

Reviews are usually written within a year or two following the original publication of the book. If you are not sure of the date of publication, search a library catalog or try Amazon.com. Be sure to look for the original date as books are often reprinted in later editions.

Search the appropriate databases.

The Academic Search Complete database covers many subject areas and is a good source for reviews of current books as well as those published within the past 10-20 years. Try a simple keyword search for the book title or combine the title or a title keyword with the last name of the author. Here's a sample search for reviews of Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. First, type part of the title and the author's last name separated by the word "AND".

Second, scroll down the screen to the "Limit your results" area of the search form. Select book review from the "document type" menu. This will limit the results of your author and title search to just those articles which are book reviews.

Consider searching a subject specific database.

Match the broad subject of the book to a library database that covers periodicals in that subject field. For example, Business Source Premier may offer more reviews of a book on a business related topic. The database America: History & Life may offer more reviews of a biography of a well known historical figure. More databases and their respective subject areas are listed on our Library Databases by Subject page.

Search print indexes for books published prior to 1980.

The following multi volume reference books are located in the Reference Collection on level 2 of the Library:

• Book Review Digest [Indexes Z1219 .C95]
• Book Review Index] [Indexes Z1035 .A1 B6]

Print indexes are your best source for finding reviews of older books. For example, Truman Capote's best seller In Cold Blood was published in 1965. A search in the volume for 1966 in Book Review Digest offers review excerpts and provides a list of citations to periodicals with reviews.