Print media sources

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

• 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.
• The Independent. Good reviews and articles, decent archive. Recommended.
• San Francisco Chronicle. Good coverage of current titles. Large archive (going back to 1995) with good search engine. Recommended.
• The Spectator. Good current reviews; excellent, easy to use archive. Recommended.

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

• The Atlantic Monthly. Relatively few reviews, but good archive (including "classic" reviews) and other literary articles and interviews
• Austin Chronicle. Weekly. Good archive.
• 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.
• Evening Standard. Good reviews, easy to use, good archive.
• The Harvard Book Review. Very limited number of reviews, tiny archive.
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Small. Decent coverage of new US publications.
• The Missouri Review. Small number of reviews.
• National Review. Decent coverage of new titles.
• The New York Observer. Good, simple design. Only one or two reviews a week, but excellent archive
• The Onion. Solid reviews, good archive.
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Good coverage of new books, archive with over 1000 reviews.
• 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 Village Voice. Only two or three reviews per week, but very good archive. Very slow to load and very annoying pop-ups. See also Voice Literary Supplement, which barely stands apart from the rest of the site any longer.
• Yale Review of Books. Small, but interesting selection.

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

• The Age. Australian. Good coverage, good archive.
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Decent coverage, but focus on less demanding fare
• Boston Globe. Decent coverage of new titles, only current reviews freely accessible.
• Chicago Sun-Times. Good coverage of current titles.
• Christian Science Monitor. Extensive coverage of current books, good archive
• Denver Post. Good archive and coverage of new books.
• Financial Times. Book section with a few reviews every Friday, current coverage freely accessible.
• globebooks. Canadian The Globe & Mail book section.
• Houston Chronicle. Good coverage of new books.
• The Miami Herald. Decent coverage of current titles.
• The New Yorker. Current week's review(s) and Briefly Noted reviews. Essentially noa ccess to archive, limiting usefulness.
• News & Observer. Good coverage of current publications. Only current reviews freely accessible.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer. Good coverage of new US publications.
• 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
• Sunday Times. South African, limited in scope.
• Sydney Morning Herald. Good book coverage.
• 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 Economist. Older (though not current) articles accessible without registering, good archive, interesting selection of books.
• Entertainment Weekly. Freely accessible on AOL, but otherwise not. Popular stuff, short reviews.
• London Review of Books. Excellent articles, though relatively few from print version freely accessible.
• The Los Angeles Times. Good reviews, but content now only accessible to subscribers or those willing to pay.
• The New Republic. Good archive, interesting long reviews -- but now almost inaccessible except for subscribers.
• New Statesman. Interesting reviews. But essentially entirely pay-per-view now.
• The New York Review of Books. Excellent clear, simple site design. Some articles from the current print version freely accessible.
• The New York Times. Once by far the best book review archive on the web, greatly diminished in the wake of the Tasini decision (see this article in the crQuarterly) -- but, if you're willing to put up with registering and enabling cookies, worthwhile.
• Salon. Reviews, and articles about books. Very good archive. New material now only fully accessible if you pay -- or endure an ad-show.
• The Sunday Times. Bare-bones look (and yet takes ages to load), good reviews -- but entirely pay-per-view now.
• Telegraph. Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Good review coverage, very good archive. Benign registration requirement: no cookies, use fake e-mail address.
• The Times. Articles and reviews. Excellent archive, but access to all material now requires registration.
• 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:

• 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.
• The Bactra Review. Over 100 reviews. Serious, eclectic.
• The Barcelona Review. Good, small archive, interesting selection
• berniE-zine. Eclectic, small, fairly literary.
• BiblioReview.com. "A gateway to book reviews and author interviews". Impressive collection of links to reviews.
• Blether. Thousands of reviews of popular titles, very mixed bag.
• The Book Barn. E-mail book discussion list with extensive review archive.
• 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.
• Curled Up With a Good Book. "Book reviews of literary and mainstream fiction, fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction".
• Danny Yee's Book Reviews. An eclectic list, largely non-fiction. Over 700 reviews.
• Flak Magazine. Limited number of reviews, but good selection, nicely presented.
• goodreports.net. Canadian, but also general interest coverage.
• Harriet Klausner's Book Reviews. Something (almost always very good) to say about what seems like every new book published.
• Internet Book List. "Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive and easily accessible database of books". Sci-fi top heavy, and very uneven coverage
• Jacket. Ca. 200 reviews, mainly poetry.
• January Magazine. "Book reviews & author interviews".
• John's Book Pages. Over 450 reviews. Serious, literary.
• Literal Mind. "Raves, Rants, Reviews." Limited number of reviews, presentation on site not ideal.
• 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.
• RebeccasReads.. Somewhat messy site, but good, broad coverage.
• The Second Circle. "A guide to contemporary literature". Interesting selection, but very small.
• spike. 170 reviews, literary focus.
• Steph's Book Reviews. Fairly extensive, current.
• Under the Covers. Ca. 4000 reviews, including multiple reviews of some 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.
  • Ha'aretz. Israeli, limited coverage of new titles.
  • The Hindu. Mainly contemporary Indian literature -- including reviews of regional-language books. Updated Tuesdays.
  • Swedish Book Review. Interesting 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:
  • FindLaw. Good reviews of law-related texts.
  • The Law and Politics Book Review. Good reviews of legal and political titles.
  
  
• Mysteries:
  • Crime Factory. Australian. Mainly crime, but also some literary fiction.
  • Crime Time. British, focus on crime/mystery.
  • Mystery Reader. A good site for reviews about mystery and suspense books, and thrillers.
  • 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.
  
  
• Romance:
  • The Romance Reader. Good coverage of romance books.
  • A Romance Review. "Where Love Rules and Romance Rocks!!!!!!" Over 2200 reviews.
  
  
• Science fiction and fantasy:
  • The Alien Online. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror focus.
  • 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.
  
  
• Science and Technology/Maths/Computers:
  • American Scientist. Good science coverage, awkward archive.
  • Electronic Review of Computer Books. Computer -related titles.
  • Human Nature Review. Everything to do with human nature, with academic/scientific focus.
  • New Scientist. Limited number of reviews that are readily accessible.
  • Read This!. The MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Online Book Review. Math-related titles.
  • Slashdot. Technology-oriented, usefully include extensive reader comments.
  • Technology and Society. Good coverage of books related to technology and society.
  
  
• Serious non-fiction:
  • The American Prospect. Non-fiction focus, emphasis on "liberal philosophy, politics and public life"
  • 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:
  • Anglican Media Sydney. Non-fiction reviews, focus on religious books.
  • Black Issues Book Review. Afro-American, popular.
  • Books & Culture. At Christianity Today; limited focus, decent reviews.
  • Esoterica. Esoterica -- texts and scholarly
  • The Gay Read. Homosexual focus, relatively small.
  • 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
• Scandinavian
• Spanish