__NOTOC__
A book review is a form of
literary criticism 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
A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...
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
''Book Review Index'' is an index of book reviews and literary criticism, found in leading academic, popular, and professional periodicals. It has been published since 1965. For most of its history it has been owned by Gale and is based in Detro ...
'' and ''
Kirkus Reviews''; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as
Arts and Humanities Citation Index,
Social Sciences Citation Index and discipline-specific databases.
Photios I of Constantinople has been called "the inventor of the book-review" for his work, ''
Bibliotheca''.
See also
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Amazon.com controversies
Amazon (company), Amazon.com has drawn criticism from multiple sources, where the ethics of certain business practices and policies have been drawn into question. Amazon has faced numerous allegations of Anti-competitive practices, anti-compet ...
*
Australian Book Review
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BookBrowse
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Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
*
The Book Club Bible
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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 conservati ...
*
Kirkus Reviews
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Library Journal
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Literary criticism
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London Review of Books
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National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...
*
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
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Shelf Awareness
Shelf Awareness is an American publishing company that produces two electronic publications/newsletters focused on bookselling, books and book reviews.
Overview
With offices in Seattle, Washington, and Montclair, New Jersey, ''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