Help me find reviews of good books that have been out at least a year
June 23, 2010 12:15 PM Subscribe
What's the easiest way to find book reviews from a year ago?
My book club prefers to read books that are out on paperback or easily available in libraries and used bookstores. When I read the NY Times Book Review or even something more mainstream like Entertainment Weekly's book section, I get all excited about the great titles I could suggest...but they're too new. Short of saving my magazines and newspapers for a year (or keeping my own list, which I am trying to do), what's my best online resource? Is there an easy, fun archive of book reviews from 2009 or 2008 that you recommend?
I've read through other questions on the site looking for book-review sites, but none seem to have an easy way to click on 2009 reviews, etc.
My book club prefers to read books that are out on paperback or easily available in libraries and used bookstores. When I read the NY Times Book Review or even something more mainstream like Entertainment Weekly's book section, I get all excited about the great titles I could suggest...but they're too new. Short of saving my magazines and newspapers for a year (or keeping my own list, which I am trying to do), what's my best online resource? Is there an easy, fun archive of book reviews from 2009 or 2008 that you recommend?
I've read through other questions on the site looking for book-review sites, but none seem to have an easy way to click on 2009 reviews, etc.
Best answer: Metacritic stopped reviewing novels in 2007, so everything in their books section is from that year or older. They collect review snippets from dozens of different publications to give you an idea of what the critical consensus was, while also summing up each book with a single numerical score to make browsing for good titles easier. They also have best-of lists for several years in both fiction and non-fiction: 2006, 2005, 2004, all time. You can also click the links at the top of those pages to browse the winners of that year's various book awards as well as the top-X lists from prominent critics.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:27 PM on June 23, 2010
posted by Rhaomi at 12:27 PM on June 23, 2010
Best answer: I sort of feel that he answer to everything is found at LibraryThing, but I'm not sure if you're really wanting published reviews. My two suggestions are
1. Of course, go to your library. It has lots of periodicals that are online and date searchable [New York Times, pretty sure, and definitely other magazines that do reviews] and you should find some good stuff there.
2. Library Things's groups with the 2009 tag. It's got people discussing the books that they read in 2009 which might spark your interest. That said, it's a lot more of a buckshot approach than going specifically through periodicals, but it's quick and easy.
posted by jessamyn at 12:30 PM on June 23, 2010
1. Of course, go to your library. It has lots of periodicals that are online and date searchable [New York Times, pretty sure, and definitely other magazines that do reviews] and you should find some good stuff there.
2. Library Things's groups with the 2009 tag. It's got people discussing the books that they read in 2009 which might spark your interest. That said, it's a lot more of a buckshot approach than going specifically through periodicals, but it's quick and easy.
posted by jessamyn at 12:30 PM on June 23, 2010
Best answer: Archived NYT book reviews
Wouldn't amazon's reviews also work for this? True, the people who post there aren't paid for their reviews. For the most part, however, I've found the reviews to be helpful.
posted by JV at 12:44 PM on June 23, 2010
Wouldn't amazon's reviews also work for this? True, the people who post there aren't paid for their reviews. For the most part, however, I've found the reviews to be helpful.
posted by JV at 12:44 PM on June 23, 2010
Check out the NYT's Paperback Row column and the "Now in Paperback" section of the Indie Next list to get an idea of what paperbacks are out now, and then search for reviews for those books.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:56 PM on June 23, 2010
posted by ocherdraco at 12:56 PM on June 23, 2010
Indie Bound also has a list specifically geared toward book groups.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:58 PM on June 23, 2010
posted by ocherdraco at 12:58 PM on June 23, 2010
Many libraries have subscriptions to the Book Review Digest database, which gives references to and summaries of book reviews. You probably have to go to the library to use it, but some libraries (especially academic libraries, and the Boston Public Library) allow remote access.
posted by brianogilvie at 2:38 PM on June 23, 2010
posted by brianogilvie at 2:38 PM on June 23, 2010
Best answer: Amazon's Books of the Decade page has best books of the year page for each of the past ten years. Lots of good stuff.
posted by judith at 5:13 PM on June 24, 2010
posted by judith at 5:13 PM on June 24, 2010
Update: Metacritic's appalling new redesign killed the book section I mentioned in my comment, but you can still view it using these legacy links:
Metacritic book reviews
2006, 2005, 2004, all time
(For future reference, just replace the "www" with "apps" in any broken Metacritic link to access the old version. Not sure how long that method will work for, but I hope it's "indefinitely," because the new layout is pretty godawful.)
posted by Rhaomi at 6:34 AM on August 17, 2010
Metacritic book reviews
2006, 2005, 2004, all time
(For future reference, just replace the "www" with "apps" in any broken Metacritic link to access the old version. Not sure how long that method will work for, but I hope it's "indefinitely," because the new layout is pretty godawful.)
posted by Rhaomi at 6:34 AM on August 17, 2010
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The Omnivore
It's like Metacritic, for books (MC used to cover books but stopped a few years ago).
So within The Omnivore's book section, it looks like there's no organization other than chronological. 2009 starts on page 183
posted by Perplexity at 12:24 PM on June 23, 2010