A Guide for Book Reviews

A book review is a multifaceted critical analysis of a book and an evaluation on the quality, value/meaning, significance, and contribution of the book to its own subject/field. It is not a report, summary, or advertisement, rather it is a serious scholarly work. Book reviews have certain functions such as, for academics, being aware of the recently published books and saving time by getting an idea about those publications through reading experts’ evaluations about their significance, value, and contributions; for publishers, finding an opportunity for a kind of advertisement of their publications that mostly remain to a limited environment like academia; for authors, receiving a feedback about their books to enable them to improve them in future editions. Although there is not only one right method for book reviews, because they are personal and reflect the reviewer’s personal ideas and remarks, this note makes suggestions on how to compose an ideal book review after providing a brief description of the nature of book reviews and includes some relevant technical notes hoping to be a helpful guide for those who want to write a book review