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.