Book reviews are important resources for your research because
they help you to: - Evaluate a book for purchase or reading. -
Survey the reactions to a book at the time of publication. -
Provide summaries of a book's contents. Book reviews found in
popular publications (daily newspapers, or magazines like The
New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly) usually are written with the
expectation that readers are looking chiefly for a
recommendation about whether the book is worth reading or not.
These reviews usually appear soon after the book has been
published. On the other hand, book reviews in academic
publications are written with the expectation that many readers
will have already read the book, and are looking for a detailed
evaluation of its merits and flaws. These reviews can appear
several years after the book's publication.