__NOTOC__
A book review is a form of
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
A book review may be a
primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review.
Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
. Such a
review may evaluate the book on the basis of personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their own ideas on the topic of a fiction or
non-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
work.
Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as ''
Book Review Index'' and ''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
''; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
The ''Arts & Humanities Citation Index'' (A&HCI), also known as ''Arts & Humanities Search'', is a citation index, with abstracting and indexing for more than 1,700 arts and humanities journals, and coverage of disciplines that includes social a ...
,
Social Sciences Citation Index
The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) is a commercial citation index product of Clarivate Analytics. It was originally developed by the Institute for Scientific Information from the Science Citation Index. The Social Sciences Citation Index ...
and discipline-specific databases.
Photios I of Constantinople
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
has been called "the inventor of the book-review" for his work, ''
Bibliotheca''.
See also
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Amazon.com controversies
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Australian Book Review
''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are 'to ...
*
BookBrowse
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Booklist
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The Book Club Bible
''The Book Club Bible'' is a non-fiction anthology of literary review, with a foreword by Lionel Shriver, whose novel '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' has its own prominent entry. Aside from providing a synopsis for each book, the text also feat ...
*
Claremont Review of Books
The ''Claremont Review of Books'' (''CRB'') is a quarterly review of politics and statesmanship published by the conservative Claremont Institute. A typical issue consists of several book reviews and a selection of essays on topics of conservat ...
*
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
*
Library Journal
''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional pract ...
*
Literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
*
London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review o ...
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National Book Critics Circle
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The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
*
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
*
Self-Publishing Review
''Skdoit'' is an online book review magazine for indie authors founded in 2008 by American author Henry Baum.
Overview
''Self-Publishing Review'' is a daily online report of indie book reviews, articles, and news related to the self-publishin ...
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Shelf Awareness
References
Further reading
*Chen, C. C. (1976), ''Biomedical, Scientific and Technical Book Reviewing'', Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.
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*Lindholm-Romantschuk, Y. (1998). ''Scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and humanities.'' The flow of ideas within and among disciplines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
*Miranda, E. O. (1996), "On book reviewing", ''Journal of Educational Thought, Vol. 30'' No. 2, pp. 191–202.
*Motta-Roth, D. (1998), "Discourse analysis and academic book reviews: a study of text and disciplinary cultures", in Fortanet, I. (Ed), ''Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes'', Universitat Jaume, Castelló de la Plana, pp. 29–58.
*Nicolaisen, J. (2002a), "Structure-based interpretation of scholarly book reviews: a new research technique", ''Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science'', pp. 123–135. Available: https://web.archive.org/web/20050818220548/http://www.db.dk/jni/Articles/Abstract_Colis4.htm
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*Rampola, Mary Lynn (2010). "Critiques and book reviews", ''A Pocket Guide to Writing in History'', Sixth Edition, pp. 26–28.
*Riley, L. E. & Spreitzer, E. A. (1970), "Book reviewing in the social sciences", ''The American Sociologist, Vol. 5'' (November), pp. 358–363.
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*Snizek, W. E. & Fuhrman, E. R. (1979), "Some factors affecting the evaluative content of book reviews in sociology", ''The American Sociologist, Vol. 14'' (May), pp. 108–114.
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External links
{{Authority control
Literary criticism