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book reviewing

Current winter books week is here!

Nadya Williams   |  February 3, 2025

All books, all week.

$4000 for a book review at The New York Review of Books?

John Fea   |  June 11, 2024

Christine Smallwood reflects on the practice of book reviewing. Here is a taste: Whatever is going on in the life of the critic is going to show up in her reading; it can’t not. Reading, writing, and thinking have experiential […]

In defense of academic book reviews

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

Here is historian Carolyn Eastman, the book review editor at the William and Mary Quarterly, at The Chronicle of Higher Education: Reviews can contain perfunctory writing, boring chapter-by-chapter summaries, and criticism so mild it’s almost imperceptible. But having just stepped […]

Bookforum will cease publication

John Fea   |  December 14, 2022

I checked Bookforum a couple times of week to prepare for our weekly “Sunday Night Odds and Ends.” The editors didn’t cover much history, politics, or religion, but I often found something worth reading. Sad to see it go. Here […]

On book reviewing

John Fea   |  August 12, 2021

I’ve had a lot of great reviews of my books. (My favorite remains Lauren Winner’s review of The Way of Improvement Leads Home in Books & Culture). I’ve also had some bad reviews written by people who wished I had […]

Fides et Historia seeks a book review editor

John Fea   |  June 24, 2021

Fides et Historia is the academic journal of the Conference on Faith and History. The book review editor is responsible for producing 20–25 book reviews per issue for two annual issues. There is a longer, featured review at the beginning […]