To find reviews of creative works, including popular fiction and nonfiction, search the following.

Core Resources

• Book Review Digest & Book Review Digest Retrospective
  (1905 to present) Indexes and excerpts book reviews from over 70 magazines and newspapers.
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
  • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?

• Book Review Index Plus
  (1965 to present) Indexes reviews of over 2 million books, periodicals, books-on-tape, and other publications; the reviews are from a variety of sources, including popular magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals, and many are full text.
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
  • Wildcard: use an exclamation point !

Other Resources

• Academic Search Premier
  (1975 to present) Includes citations to reviews in popular periodicals, some scholarly journals, and several national newspapers.
  To find book reviews:
  • Enter key words from the title of the book and then add the phrase "book review"
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
  • Wildcard: use a question mark ?

• Alternative Press Index
  Library has 1995 to present: Reference Index Area R 050 A466
  Indexes book reviews in periodicals such as The Advocate, The Nation, The Utne Reader, and other "radical" or "alternative" periodicals.
  To find book reviews:
  • Start searching in the volume covering the year that the book was published.
  • At the back of the volume, there is a section for "Book Reviews," which is arranged alphabetically by book author. Some reviews also appear in the main part of the index, but the most complete list is in the back.

• Contemporary Women's Issues
  (1992 to present) Includes citations to book reviews from mainstream periodicals, "grey" literature, and the alternative press on topics related to women.
  To find book reviews:
  • Enter key words from the title of the book and then in the drop-down menu for "Article Type," choose "Book Review."
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: automatic
  • Phrase searching: automatic

• Historical Newspapers: The New York Times
  (1851-2003) Provides the full text of the New York Times for these years; page images can be downloaded as pdf files.
  To find book reviews:
  • On the Advanced Search screen, enter key words from the title of the book.
  • Click on the "More Search Options" tab toward the bottom of the page and from the "Article Type" drop-down menu, choose "Review."
  Note: To find reviews in the New York Times after 2001, use LexisNexis Academic.

• LexisNexis Academic
  (Approx. 1980 to present) Includes the full text of book reviews from major national and international newspapers, such as the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Boston Globe, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Times (London); also includes periodicals like Kirkus Reviews and Publisher's Weekly.
  To find book reviews:
  1. Do a "Guided News Search."
  2. In the first drop down menu, "News Category," choose "Arts & Sports News."
  3. In the second drop-down menu, "News Sources," choose "Book, movie, music, and play reviews."
  4. Enter key words from the title of the book.
  5. Adjust the date range as appropriate.
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: use an exclamation point
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
  • Wildcard: use an asterisk *

• OmniFile Full Text Mega
  (1982 to present) Indexes articles from over 3,000 scholarly and popular periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences; also includes the full text of selected articles from over 1,650 of these periodicals.
  Note: OmniFile contains all of the information (1982 to present) in six Wilson databases: Education Abstracts, General Science Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Readers' Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, and Wilson Business Abstracts.
  If you need to find a review of a humanities or social sciences book published before the early 1980s, search the full Humanities Abstracts or Social Sciences Abstracts databases, which go back to 1907.
  To find book reviews:
  • In the first entry box, enter key words from the title of the book; keep the default search type "All - Smart Search."
  • In the second entry box, type "book review" and choose "document type" from the drop-down menu.
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
  • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?

• Periodicals Index Online
  (c. 1665-1995) Includes book reviews and criticism.
  To find book reviews:
  • Enter the title of the book
  • At the right-hand side of the search page, select the "book reviews" radio button and deselect the "articles" radio button
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: automatic.

• Readers' Guide Abstracts
  (1890 to present) Indexes book reviews appearing in English-language popular magazines. Particularly useful for its retrospective coverage.
  To find book reviews:
  • Books published prior to 1976:
    • Enter the author's name and, if necessary, key words from the title of the book.
    • Note that most reviews prior to 1976 were included in Book Review Digest, another H.W. Wilson index.
  • Books published from 1976 to the present:
    • Search strategy 1:
      • In the first entry box, enter key words from the title of the book; keep the default search type "All - Smart Search."
      • In the second entry box, type "book review" and choose "document type" from the drop-down menu.
    • Search strategy 2:
      • Enter key words from the title and then add the phrase "book reviews."
  Search syntax:
  • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
  • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
  • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?

• Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Centenary Archive
  (1902-1990) Contains the Times Literary Supplement Index as well as page images from the TLS (1920-1990). Includes more than 250,000 reviews; in addition, the Archive provides information about anonymous contributors to the TLS, information that does not appear in the print version of the TLS Index.
  To find book reviews:
  • Enter the name of the author and title of the work.