Book Review Assignment

Your book review should be 4 to 8 pages long. The following elements should be present.

• Provide the background for the work.
  • What are the author's credentials, what other things has she/he done?
  • What is the problem being discussed? What is the motivation for writing a book about it?
  • What is the history of discourse on this problem? What have people said prior to this author?
• Summarize the contents of the book.
• Identify the main point or points. What is the author proposing, and what is the summary of his or her case? This is harder to do with books that tell a narrative, but even in those cases the author is presenting the story to prove a point.
• Relate this book to other sources. These could be
  • Readings from class.
  • Other related sources you have found.
  • Sources referenced by the author.
  • A review of this book.
• Respond to the book yourself
  • Even if you think the points the book makes are mostly wrong, there usually exist redeeming qualities.
  • Even if you mostly agree with the book, there are always things to critique.
  • To the extent that it is appropriate, you should demonstrate that your response is biblically-informed.

Note from this that you will be required to do some extra research---that means searching out one to three other sources and using them in your analysis of the book. Finding a book or article that the author cites is a good practice, especially to find what else has been said about the present topic. It also allows you to analyze whether the author of your book is using these sources fairly. Finding a review of the book is especially recommended for more recent books.

If you think any of these elements needs to be modified for your particular book, please communicate that with me while you work on it.

Use standard a standard style for citations (such as MLA).

DUE: March 6 (last day of A quad)