LibGuides: Leisure Reading: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

The following list includes both specific publications well known for their book reviews, like the London Review of Books, and indexes of book reviews across many publications, like Book Review Digest Plus.

Many other databases, such as Academic Search Complete and JSTOR, include book reviews from various types of publications. Look in the Advanced search page for options to limit your search to reviews, and search for the reviewed book's title and/or author.

Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window
Drawing from thousands of periodicals, Book Review Digest Plus brings together book reviews from all the Wilson databases. With coverage back to 1983, Book Review Digest Plus indexes reviews of both fiction and non-fiction, and provides many full-text reviews and substantial review excerpts.
Historic Literary Criticism This link opens in a new window
"Historic Literary Criticism is a collection of over 20,000 historical contemporary reviews, essays and commentary related to more than 500 influential authors from the 17th to the early 20th century. The content comes from a range of sources such as contemporary periodicals as well as published and unpublished letters. The cornerstone of the collection comes from the renowned Critical Heritage series from Routledge (ProQuest)."
London Review of Books This link opens in a new window
Each issue of the LRB contains up to 15 long reviews and essays by academics, writers and journalists. There are also shorter art and film reviews, as well as poems and a lively letters page.
New York Review of Books This link opens in a new window
The electronic edition of the NYRB includes nearly every piece ever published in the Review, from the very first issue in 1963 to the most recent one. (1963 to date).
New York Times (Historical:1851-2014) This link opens in a new window
Full text image of the newspaper (1851-2014). For current online access see the New York Times entry.
Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
An index to popular American periodicals from 1890-1982. Contains comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of late 19th through 20th century America. (1890-1982)
Times Literary Supplement This link opens in a new window
TLS is "the world's leading cultural magazine, with essays and reviews on the most significant books, ideas and art of our times (Exact Editions)." Issues are available from January 1, 2010 to the present.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive (TLS) This link opens in a new window
The TLS Historical Archive, which supersedes the TLS Centenary Archive, contains all reviews, letters, poems and articles published in the TLS from 1902 to 2019; added to this collection are the disclosed identities of anonymous contributors.
Times Digital Archive (London), 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
"This historical newspaper archive allows researchers an unparalleled opportunity to search and view the best-known and most cited newspaper in the world online in its original published context (Gale)." Fondren owns access to the Times Digital Archive 1785-1986, 1987-2013 and 2015-2019. Current issues of The Times Digital Archive are available from Nexis Uni and Newspaper Source under JN "Times, The (United Kingdom)" and are also searchable in Gale NewsVault.