A Guide to Doing Book Reviews Books are both reservoirs of information and works of explanation and interpretation. The key words here are interpretation and explanation. Remember, you are not writing a book report, which is a simple summary of a book, but a book review.
Book reviews are more complicated and demanding.
The first thing to look for is the author's thesis or central argument. Keep in mind that the thesis is not necessarily the subject of the book. The subject of a book may be a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the thesis may be that Roosevelt was a great wartime leader but a poorinterpreter of the postwar world. A book may have several sub-themes, but a good book has aprimary thesis. Read the book thoughtfully.