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MLA Citation Guide: Book Reviews

This guide shows you how to cite using MLA.

Abbreviating Months

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows: 

January = Jan.
February = Feb.
March = Mar.
April = Apr.
May = May
June = June
July = July
August = Aug.
September = Sept.
October = Oct.
November = Nov.
December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper. 

Formatting

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Book Review - No Title

Author's Last Name, First Name. Review of Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, by Book Author's First Name Last Name. Name of Journal, vol. Volume Number, no. Issue Number, Date of Publication, pp. First Page Number-Last Page Number. Name of Database. doi: DOI Number if Given.

 Note: If the book review is from a source other than an article in the library's database, view the appropriate section on the MLA guide to determine how to cite the source after the name of the book's author.

Works Cited List Example  

Khovanova, Tanya. Review of Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality, by Edward Frenkel. The College Mathematics Journal, vol. 45, no. 3, May 2014, pp. 230-231. JSTOR. doi: www.jstor.org/stable/10.4169/college.math.j.45.3.230.

In-Text Citation Example

(Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: (Khovanova 230)

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 28-29

Book Review - Title Refers to Book being Reviewed

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Review." Name of Journal, vol. Volume Number, no. Issue Number, Date of Publication, pp. First Page Number-Last Page Number. Name of Database. doi: DOI Number if Given.

 Note: If the book review is from a source other than an article in the library's database, view the appropriate section on the MLA guide to determine how to cite the source.

Works Cited List Example  

Grosholz, Emily R. "Book Review: Realizing Reason: A Narrative of Truth and Knowledge by Danielle Macbeth." Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 263-275, Academic Search Complete. doi: 10.5642/jhummath.20170120.

In-Text Citation Example

(Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: (Grosholz 264)

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 28-29

Book Review - Title Doesn't Refer to Book being Reviewed

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Review." Review of Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, by Book Author's First Name Last Name. Name of Journal, vol. Volume Number, no. Issue Number, Date of Publication, pp. First Page Number-Last Page Number. Name of Database. doi: DOI Number if Given. 

 Note: If the book review is from a source other than an article in the library's database, view the appropriate section on the MLA guide to determine how to cite the source.

Works Cited List Example  

Rodriques, Elias. "Lonesome for our Home." Review of Barraccon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo," by Zora Neale Hurston. Nation, vol. 306, no. 18, 18 June 2018, pp. 35-39. MAS Ultra - School Edition

In-Text Citation Example

(Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: (Rodriques 35)

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 28-29