I enjoyed The Dictionary of Lost Words so when I saw that Pip Williams had written another book, I had to read it. While The Bookbinder is a great follow-up to The Dictionary of Lost Words and contains some references to it, it is a completely stand-alone story.

The Bookbinder is a well-written work of historical fiction, set in the early 20th century and details the impact of WWI both on the book bindery as well as the community. Other historical references that become important to the story include Belgian refugees, the Spanish flu and the suffragette movement.

At the heart of the story are twin sisters who both work at the Oxford University Press. They, along with other women, are responsible for folding the printed pages. It is an interesting look inside how words become pages and pages become books. I was fascinated to learn how women were segregated from men and were responsible for different processes in the book building business.

The book starts off slow and requires patience from the reader. Stick with it because it is worth it. Many themes are explored in this book, including the love of reading, ambition, endurance, class struggles and it’s accompanying lack of opportunities, compromise, and ambition. It is easy to empathize with these imperfect characters and their relationships.

Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Pip Williams writing is brilliant. This historical fiction set during turn of the century WWI fearures a strong female lead and offers plenty of drama, tension, and romance. Pip Williams will make you fall in love with the power of words. Such an engaging and beautiful story.

Enjoyable and educational! I really enjoyed learning especially about the volunteers with the veterans. I would welcome another story about the sisters.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read this book.

The Bookbinder is an immersive and compelling follow-up to The Dictionary of Lost Words. Peggy is an intellectual woman who works at the bindery, but dreams for so much more, including attending university. Being forced to bind the books but not allowed to read them begins to wear on Peggy and make her question her life. Adding to that, Peggy's twin Maude is neurodivergent which requires Peggy to take care of her, often at the cost of her own ambitions.

Peggy volunteers to read and write for injured soldiers, and meets Gwen, an entitled rich girl who has everything Peggy wants but is wasting her privileges. She also meets Baastian and other war-torn soldiers and Belgians, who turn her world and community upside-down. The Bookbinder is heartwarming, and shows us a bit of the WW1 through the women's eyes. It is about knowledge, and how who creates it and has access to it can change everything; and sometimes truth can get lost in the process. It is also an inspiring story of following your heart and your dreams no matter what obstacles stand in your way.

This was a bit of a chore for me to finish. I felt plot was missing but instead overly filled with historical facts. Just didn’t really captivate me. I do appreciate the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Much like her first novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams' The Bookbinder brings to light the little-known world of women - this time women who are working at the Oxford University Press as bookbinders. Twin sisters Peggy and Maude live on their own since their mother's death and work at the Press folding the pages of the books. But Peggy dreams of one day being a student at Oxford and actually getting to read the full books she helps to bind. It's clear that the people around her see her as capable of making the move from "Town" to "Gown", however, Peggy holds herself back due to her sister's disability.

And then war comes, and Peggy meets Gwen, a student, when they volunteer together. Through her friendship with Gwen, Peggy begins to let herself dream and make those dreams reality. Through her volunteering, Peggy meets a man who could also give her another part of the life she wants.

The question is, will she get any of it?

It took me awhile to get into this book, and I didn't always understand the folding process of the book binding. I did, however, like how the author weaved characters from her first book into this book without making Peggy's story a sequel of sorts. Once I got toward the middle of the story, when Peggy gets out of the book bindery and actually starts doing things, that's when I found the novel to really pick up. Williams does a good job of giving readers a glimpse into a life whose history, because it was female, was rarely recorded.

The Bookbinder is published by Ballantine Books and will be available to purchase tomorrow, August 1, 2023. I received a free e-ARC.

This is a lovely book. It follows the story of Peggy, a bookbinder in the early 20th century. The characters are rich and vibrant, and I became so invested on Peggy’s story.

The story is a bit slow and I was not a taken with this one as The Dictionary of Lost Words. There is no need to read Dictionary to fully enjoy this story, though there are a few connections with that story that are fun to find in the story.

I loved the subject of the novel which is about one of my favorite things… books!
Peggy and Maude, sisters both employed in the bookbinding trade during WWI, want very different things.
Parts of me identified with both sisters and their ambitions.
I liked the WWI setting because it really was a pivotal time in England.
The author’s note filled in some of,the story gaps.

I really liked this historical fiction from Pip Williams. I read her previous book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and though this is considered a sort of follow-up, it's not really connected to the first other than by the setting.

The book follows twin sisters Peggy and Maude as they live and work in Oxford. Both girls are employed at the local book bindery, where Peggy is often distracted by the words she sees while folding pages. She longs to study at the Oxford's women's college, Somerville, but sees no way to bridge the gap considering she left school as an early teen to begin work at the bindery. Add to that the uniqueness of her sister Maude, and Peggy subconsciously feels trapped.

World War II begins early on in the book, and Oxford is flooded with Belgian refugees. Peggy volunteers her time as a reader in the hospital wards, where she meets a young Belgian soldier with horrific injuries. Meanwhile, a woman named Lotte joins the ranks at the bindery, making quick friends with Maude. The story that flows from these relationships is one of love, and longing, friendship and loyalty, heartache and bravery. A must read for fans of historical fiction with strong female characters.

Pip Williams's sophomore novel brings back the magic of The Dictionary of Lost Words, with a few familiar characters to boot. I adored The Bookbinder, and living with Peggy and Maude in my head was a thoughtful journey as I learned more about how strong women in the WWII era really were.

There were many tears shed throughout this book. Maude has a special place in my heart and it was amazing getting to know her, and seeing just how strong she really was. Peggy didn't see it either until it was almost too late.

I found Peggy to be condescending and not very pleasant, but her story still resonated with me. Her desire to read books instead of just folding them gave her a slightly endearing quality. I enjoyed her love story with the Belgian soldier.

All in all, this was a great follow-up to Dictionary and I award it 4 stars. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a great historical fiction told through the eyes of women.

Peggy and Maude are bookbinders in England during WWI. Peggy is ambitious, and Maude is content with her lot in life. When Belgian refugees begin to enter England, Peggy has a vision of a world where she can do much more.

Read this book if you enjoy strong female characters, historical fiction, and sibling relationships. I enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! Pip Williams adds an incredible book to the world she paints in A Dictionary of Loss Words. I loved how these two stories shared characters, places, and beautiful books. I really loved the dynamics of Maude and Peggy as they continued to grow together and apart!

Williams is a profound storyteller and the writing is beautiful.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I both listened to the audio and read this via ebook. I DNF'd the audio, as it didn't grab me, but the novel alone was terrific. I love Williams's knowledge of what she writes and how that is portrayed in her stories. While not a sequel to The Dictionary of Lost Words, it could almost be considered a sister book.

A wonderful WWI-era read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for both copies of this book. All opinions are my own.

Are you the type of person that can’t keep themselves from reading if there are words in front of you?

If yes, Peggy Jones can definitely relate - she & her unique twin sister Maude are employed at Oxford’s book bindery on the brink of World War I, & though Peggy is told that her job is to fold the pages of the books & not read them, she can’t help herself. Everytime there is a slight imperfection in a book, she takes it home to the narrowboat she & Maude share instead of letting it go to waste, forming her own sort of cobbled-together library. Big changes come to their corner of the world as the war heats up: Belgian refugees come to stay, men go to war leaving jobs open, & Peggy simultaneously has a foreign soldier love interest & the opportunity to apply for admission to the college just across the street from her workplace that has always been tantalizingly out of reach. What will she have to give up to make the change from someone who just lives in town to a student wearing an academic gown? And can she study hard enough to pass the entrance exams?

This is the first Pip Williams novel I’ve read, & I realized a character from The Dictionary of Lost Words is mentioned a few times in this story so I’ll definitely have to read that. I love books about books, so naturally I was drawn to this one purely because of the title. Once I got into it I loved the way the author put a spotlight on this specific place & time, focusing on women that I have never seen history books mention. Peggy’s love of learning is inspiring, & the author did a wonderful job with the rest of the cast of characters as well, all of them coming together to show different aspects of how the war had an impact on the day-to-day lives of regular people. I also found the point that the author makes about translating text from another language to English to be thought-provoking: the words that are chosen (that specific translator’s interpretation, that translator often being a man) profoundly influence our understanding of what was originally meant.

Thank you to NetGalley & Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent read, if a bit slow. The characters were multidimensional and interesting. The author made them feel very real to me. I'm sad that the book is over because I kind of miss them. The setting is of interest to any fan of books. I appreciated learning more about the bindery girls and other workers behind the scenes at a publisher. I really like that some previously hidden populations of women are getting their stories told lately. I have read a few books set during World War I, but this book approached that era from a different perspective, and I really liked it.

Step into the world of bookbinding during WWII as you follow Peggy and Maude through their daily lives and trials as they navigate life. An endearing story of 2 sisters who lose their mother too early, live in Oxford without many options in life, and care for one another and learn to love refugees. Pip Williams helps us learn what daily life was like for refugees, the disabled, and those who live with them. This book is a beautiful peak into how books were bound and how communities were bound together for the good of all. A must read for book lovers, librarians, and history fans!

This is the second book written by Pip Williams that I've read; the first was The Dictionary of Lost Words which I read for book club last summer. Both books are set in Oxford, England, deal with the Oxford Publishing House, and have some crossover characters. This book (and both books, actually) is extremely charming and lovely, pulling me into the lives of these characters during World War I. Peggy and Maude are twin sisters who have worked in the bindery of the Oxford Publishing House since they were 12 years old. They live on a narrow boat and have followed in their mother's footsteps by working in the bindery. Peggy longs to go to college, but family circumstances have not offered her that opportunity, especially since she has to keep an eye on Maude after her mother's death. Her world expands when Belgian refugees arrive in Oxford and start working at the bindery. In addition, she volunteers at the local hospital, experiencing the horrors of war first-hand.

The book deals with words, language, books, scholarship, reading - all the things I love! There are two librarians who figure prominently in the story, and both are heroes in their own way. The story of the dedication of the two sisters is endearing, and the other characters in the book have very strong roles in Peggy and Maude's lives.

I received an advanced reader copy from NetGally and am very thankful for the opportunity to read this excellent historical novel. Overall I highly recommend this book!

First World War 1914. Peggy and her twin sister, Maude, work in a book bindery. They continue to live on the narrow boat following their mother's death. Maude is "special," limited in what she is capable of doing, and Peggy feels she must look after Maude.

As all the men leave to go fight, Peggy is afforded opportunities within the book binding shop, opportunities she never would have had before. Her mother was a reader and unusual for the time, Peggy owns several books. She is also able to bring home sections of books that are imperfect. She longs to have access to many books, and through a chance encounter, she finds herself able to use the Oxford college library, where she spends her very limited amount of free time. She meets Bastiaan, a Belgian refugee, and readers will find themselves rooting for Bastiaan and Peggy.

This book is related to the author's THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS but is not as magical as that story was. Twin sisters Peggy and Maude work at the Oxford University Press as folders for the pages of new books being printed. Maude, who may be on the autism spectrum, is happy with her life, but Peggy wishes for more - to be able to read the books freely, to study at the University, to advance in her work - but is held back in every instance by the fact that she is a woman. The story covers the years of World War I in England. It is interesting but not as riveting or educational as LOST WORDS. Thanks to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine Books for providing an ARC.