Print media sources

Major - fully, freely accessible:
(the biggest and best resources)

• Financial Times. Solid literary section with a few reviews every Friday, archive now again freely accessible (but articles can be hard to find).
• GuardianUnlimited. The site of The Guardian and The Observer, an excellent general book site with good reviews and coverage of contemporary British literature. Highly recommended.
• New Statesman. Interesting reviews, archive now again freely accessible.
• The New York Sun. Good literary coverage, and the excellent and extensive archive is now freely accessible.
• San Francisco Chronicle. Good coverage of current titles. Large archive (going back to 1995) with good search engine. Recommended.
• Telegraph. Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Good review coverage, very good archive.

Secondary - fully, freely accessible:
(local or otherwise somewhat limited resources)

• Austin Chronicle. Weekly. Limited coverage, decent archive.
• Australian Literary Review. Bi-weekly supplement at The Australian.
• Bookforum. Limited amount from print version available online, tiny archive.
• BookPage site. Lots of reviews, but not particularly user friendly, and not the type of books we're interested in
• Boston Phoenix. Fairly good review coverage, decent archive.
• Boston Review. Interesting articles, essays, and reviews. Archive relatively small.
• City Pages. Relatively small, but decent coverage and archive.
• Context. Useful readings of authors and other essays. Still limited in scope.
• Detroit Free Press. Decent coverage of current titles.
• Entertainment Weekly. Popular stuff, good selection, short reviews.
• The Harvard Book Review. Limited number of reviews, small archive, sporadically updated.
• LA Weekly. Decent, limited literary coverage, good archive.
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Small. Decent coverage of new US publications.
• The Missouri Review. Small number of reviews.
• New York. Solid reviews as well as additional literary coverage, decent archive.
• The Onion. Solid reviews, good archive.
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Good coverage of new books, archive with over 1000 reviews.
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Decent coverage of new books.
• Quill & Quire. Canadian focus.
• Rain Taxi. Interesting books reviewed, not all from the print edition available, small archive.
• Review of Contemporary Fiction. Brief reviews, excellent selection. Recommended.
• scotsman.com. Site of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. Fancy and somewhat cumbersome (and slow), but good coverage, good archive.
• The Star Tribune. Decent coverage of new titles.
• The Stranger. Limited coverage, good archive.
• The Village Voice. Only two or three reviews per week, but very good archive. See also Voice Literary Supplement, which barely stands apart from the rest of the site any longer.

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Other - current, but limited archive:
(current information, but archive limited and/or not freely accessible)

• The Age. Australian. Good coverage.
• The Australian.. Very good coverage, Australian focus.
• Boston Globe. Decent coverage of new titles, only current reviews freely accessible.
• Chicago Sun-Times. Good coverage of current titles, but incredibly annoying pop-under ads.
• Christian Science Monitor. Extensive coverage of current books, good archive
• Daily Mail. Limited coverage of current books.
• Denver Post. Good archive and coverage of new books.
• The Globe & Mail. Canadian. Good book section.
• Houston Chronicle. Good coverage of new books.
• The Independent. Good reviews and articles, but archives no longer readily accessible.
• The Los Angeles Times. Good reviews, content freely accessible (but only for two weeks).
• Maclean's. Canadian magazine, decent coverage.
• Mail & Guardian. South African. Decent coverage of both local and international books.
• Newsday. Decent current selection.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer. Good coverage of new US publications. Only recent reviews freely accessible.
• The Seattle Times. Good coverage of new books, good archive.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch.. Decent coverage of current titles.
• Stuff. New Zealand, with reviews from The Dominion Post and The Press
• Sydney Morning Herald. Australian. Good book coverage.
• Time Out (London). Solid coverage of new titles.
• Time Out (New York). Decent coverage of new US titles.
• The Times. Articles and reviews. Excellent archive, but access requires registration.
• USA Today. Decent coverage of current, popular writing.
• The Washington Times. Small, limited coverage.

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Major - registration required:
(extremely limited information (if any) freely and/or readily accessible)

• The Atlantic Monthly. Relatively few reviews, but good archive (including "classic" reviews) and other literary articles and interviews -- but nothing fully freely accessible.
• The Economist. Older (though not current) articles accessible without registering, good archive, interesting selection of books.
• Kirkus Reviews. Except for a few featured reviews in every issue only accessible to subscribers.
• London Review of Books. Excellent articles, though relatively few from print version freely accessible.
• The New Republic. Good archive, interesting long reviews -- but now almost inaccessible except for subscribers.
• The New York Review of Books. Excellent clear, simple site design. Some articles from the current print version freely accessible.
• The New York Times. Great archive, much of which is freely accessible, but recent and current content generally registration-requiring.
• Salon. Reviews, and articles about books. Very good archive. New material now only fully accessible if you pay -- or endure an ad-show.
• The Spectator. Good review coverage, but access almost entirely limited to subscribers.
• TLS. The marvelous Times Literary Supplement -- an invaluable publication, but very little freely accessible on site. A great resource if you're willing to register and pay.
• The Washington Post. Good coverage, fairly benign registration (requires enabled cookies, but can submit invented user-data.)

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Web-based sources

General interest:

• About.com - Literature: Contemporary. Several reviews of new books each week.
• The Agony Column. Reviews and commentary.
• American Book Review. "Dedicated to reviewing books from independent, small, and university presses." Limited online availability -- and in the dreaded pdf format.
• Anglican Media Sydney. General interest fiction.
• Anthony Campbell's Book Reviews. Over 200 reviews, good selection.
• The Bactra Review. Over 100 reviews. Serious, eclectic.
• The Barcelona Review. Good, small archive, interesting selection
• Barnes & Noble Review. "Aims to bring serious readers smart and useful appraisals of current books, music, and films (on DVD), as well as reconsiderations of important past works."
• berniE-zine. Eclectic, small, fairly literary.
• Between the Pages. Small, popular titles. Also other content.
• Bibliofemme. Good, fairly extensive general site.
• BiblioReview.com. "A gateway to book reviews and author interviews". Impressive collection of links to reviews.
• Black Star Review. "Books - Politics - Popular Culture".
• Blether. Thousands of reviews of popular titles, very mixed bag.
• Boldtype. "An email-based review, presenting each month a short list of books worth reading."
• The Book Barn. E-mail book discussion list with extensive review archive.
• The Book Brothel. Over 100 reviews, mainly popular fiction.
• BookLoons. "Book reviews across genres". About 1200 reviews, popular focus
• bookmunch. Small, interesting selection, nicely done. Also some author interviews.
• BookPleasures.com. "Reviews, interviews, and more ...", especially strong on travel-related writing
• Book Reviews by Scott London. Non-fiction, especially media and politics.
• Book Reviews by Kristen Voskuil. General interest.
• Bookslut. Monthly. Includes author interviews and other features.
• Brothers Judd. Good, large selection of reviews (with links !), now relatively easy to use.
• California Literary Review. Reviews, some additional material.
• Cambridge Book Review. Limited number of reviews.
• Crescent Blues. Mainly genre fiction.
• Curled Up With a Good Book. "Book reviews of literary and mainstream fiction, fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction".
• The Danforth Review. Limited number of reviews.
• Danny Yee's Book Reviews. An eclectic list, largely non-fiction. Over 800 reviews.
• Emerging Writers Forum. Decent selection.
• ex libris reviews. Small collection.
• Flak Magazine. Limited number of reviews, but good selection, nicely presented.
• Fresh Fiction. Genre focus.
• Front Street Reviews. Popular focus.
• goodreports.net. Canadian, but also general interest coverage.
• Green Man Review. Good, fairly large selection.
• Harriet Klausner's Book Reviews. Something (almost always very good) to say about what seems like every new book published.
• Heartland Reviews. "Scientifically-based book reviews from the heart." Unwieldy.
• IMHO. In My Hysterical Opinion. Decent selection of reviews.
• Internet Book List. "Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive and easily accessible database of books". Sci-fi top heavy, and very uneven coverage
• Internet Review of Books. "Reviewing books in the fields of science, social science, history, art, music, and current affairs with attitude and passion: An Intelligent Guide for Intelligent People."
• Jacket. Ca. 200 reviews, mainly poetry.
• January Magazine. "Book reviews & author interviews".
• John's Book Pages. Over 450 reviews. Serious, literary.
• Just Book Reviews. "It is composed of a small nucleus of academics and intellectuals who have expert knowledge of specific areas"
• Large Print Reviews. Fairly extensive selection of reviews of books available in large print editions.
• Metacritic Books. Collects (and links to) published reviews of new publications. Adding about one review a day since mid-2004.
• Midwest Book Review. Good, very broad coverage and large archive, but brief reviews, very unwieldy presentation (and only semi-useful search capability).
• Montreal Review of Books. Bi-annual, limited number of reviews.
• Mostly Fiction. Good, extensive coverage -- and with links !
• MyShelf.com. Decent selection.
• NewPages. Good collection, small press focus.
• The Oxonian Review of Books. "Features reviews of recently published books in literature, politics, science, and the arts". Relatively few reviews.
• Palatinate Online. British, limited number of reviews.
• Parson's Review. "Independent fiction and nonfiction book reviews by pastor and freelance writer". Small.
• PopMatters. Interesting selection, decent archive.
• RALPH. The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities. Unwieldy, but interesting coverage.
• Readysteadybook.com. "Devoted to reviewing the very best books in literary fiction, poetry, history and philosophy." Good coverage of new titles.
• RebeccasReads. Somewhat messy site, but good, broad coverage.
• ReviewsOfBooks.com. Provides links to newspaper reviews of extensive number of recently released books. (Note that links open in annoying small, separate pages).
• The Second Circle. "A guide to contemporary literature". Interesting selection, but very small.
• Simon McLeish. Over 1100 reviews. Fiction (particularly science- and crime-fiction) and non-fiction (particularly science, history, music and literature).
• spike. Over 200 reviews, literary focus.
• Steph's Book Reviews. Fairly extensive, current.
• What I've been Reading. "Comments on books from Bob Corbett". Small, but good selection of literary titles.

Return to book review sites index.

Genre and special interest:

• Film:
  • Bright Lights Film Journal. Film-related titles.
  
  
• International:
  • Asia Times. Decent coverage, Asian focus.
  • The Asian Review of Books. "specialising not just in books published in Asia but also on international titles of particular interest to readers in Asia".
  • Australian Book Review. Limited number of reviews from journal available online.
  • Babelguides. "Your guide to world literature in English translation, with a comprehensive book database and 1000+ reviews". Uneven as to extent of coverage, but of some interest.
  • Biblio: A Review of Books. "India's leading literary magazine". Good review coverage of SE Asian books, but now requires registration
  • Canadian Literature. Canadian focus. Large, somewhat cumbersome to navigate.
  • Daily Mail & Guardian. South African. Small.
  • The Hindu. Mainly contemporary Indian literature -- including reviews of regional-language books. Updated Tuesdays.
  • Japan Review Net. "An independent site for books on Japan." Limited number of reviews.
  • Japan Visitor. Brief reviews of Japan-related titles -- unfortunately bunched together.
  • Outlook India. Good general coverage.
  • Swedish Book Review. Interesting but limited general coverage, in English
  • World Literature Today. Premier review forum for international and translated literature -- but reviews hidden in the horrible pdf format, i.e. almost unusable
  
  
• Law:
  • European Books. Law focus.
  • FindLaw. Good reviews of law-related texts.
  • The Law and Politics Book Review. Good reviews of legal and political titles.
  
  
• Mysteries:
  • Crime Time. British, focus on crime/mystery.
  • Mystery Reader. A good site for reviews about mystery and suspense books, and thrillers.
  • New Mystery Reader Magazine. Decent mystery coverage.
  • ReviewingTheEvidence.com. "Thousands of reviews of mysteries and thrillers of all categories".
  • Tangled Web. Ca. 1000 reviews. Annoying frames, but good coverage.
  
  
• Poetry:
  • The "Constant Critic". "tri-weekly poetry reviews".
  • Contemporary Poetry Review. "Resuscitating poetry criticism". Only ca. 100 revs.
  • Poetic Voices. Fairly small, decent coverage.
  • Verse magazine's webspace. Blog format less than ideal, but good coverage.
  
  
• Romance:
  • The Romance Reader. Good coverage of romance books. Over 5000 reviews.
  • A Romance Review. "Where Love Rules and Romance Rocks!!!!!!" Over 4000 reviews.
  
  
• Science fiction and fantasy:
  • The Alien Online. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror focus.
  • Fantasybookspot. Fantasy focus. About 200 reviews, as well as other content.
  • Science Fiction Weekly. Good science fiction coverage
  • sffworld.com. Good coverage of science fiction and fantasy.
  • SFReader.com. Reviews of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels.
  • Susan Stepney. Decent selection.
  
  
• Science and Technology/Maths/Computers:
  • American Scientist. Good science coverage, awkward archive.
  • Human Nature Review. Everything to do with human nature, with academic/scientific focus.
  • Read This!. The MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Online Book Review. Math-related titles.
  • Slashdot. Technology-oriented, usefully include extensive reader comments.
  • Susan Stepney. Non-fiction -- mainly science -- reviews, good selection.
  • Technology and Society. Good coverage of books related to technology and society.
  
  
• Serious non-fiction:
  • Claremont Review of Books. Making "cutting-edge arguments for a new, reinvigorated conservatism".
  • Foreign Affairs. Reviews of books on international affairs.
  • ForeWord. Non-fiction focus.
  • H-Net Reviews. Excellent coverage of scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences.
  
  
• Special Interest:
  • Black Issues Book Review. Afro-American, popular.
  • Books & Culture. At Christianity Today; limited focus, decent reviews.
  • Bryn Mawr Classical Review. "Reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies (including archaeology)." Superb archive, great resource.
  • Diva Tribe. "Women's Fiction - Book Reviews for Women at DivaTribe". Small selection.
  • Dragonfly Review. "A monthly magazine section that reports on newly released literary nonfiction about healthy living, spiritual growth, social justice and the environment."
  • Esoterica. Esoterica -- texts and scholarly
  • GLOCOM Platform. Japanese Institute of Global Communications, focus on Japanese issues, non-fiction.
  • Review of Biblical Literature. Extensive coverage "of books in biblical studies and related fields".

Return to book review sites index.

Foreign Book Review Sites:

Literary criticism and book reviewing is not restricted to English. Here a brief list of sites the complete review has found useful, in the following languages:

• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Russian
• Scandinavian
• Spanish