Scholarly books are reviewed in academic or peer-reviewed journals and are written by academics. As these reviews place the work in the context of current scholarship, they can take several years to be published. Popular reviews, on the other hand, usually appear at the time of publication and tend to "hype" the book for sales and often do not critically evaluate the material.
Scholarly reviews are written by specialists in the field and place the book within the scholarly discussion, compare the book to other works in the field, and analyze the author's methodology, interpretations, and conclusions. Existing book reviews, found by searching in databases, may help you with writing your own book review.
Searching the Library Catalog for information about the topic, author, and related materials can help place your Book Review into context.