Pip Williams can do no wrong! The Bookbinder is just as beautiful and well thought out as the Dictionary of Lost Words.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

A captivating historical fiction story featuring twin sisters during WWI working at Oxford Press. It’s a fascinating look at bookbinding. It’s a standalone novel but does tie in with The Dictionary of Lost Words, so there are themes of women’s rights and sisterhood. The theme of melancholy is prevalent as well.

After enjoying The Dictionary of Lost Words last year, I was quite excited to get a chance to check out The Bookbinder by Pip Williams.

In the years surrounding World War 1, Peggy is a book bindery girl, responsible for her twin, Maude, and dreaming of a life where she reads books at the university, not binds them. As the war progresses and Belgian refugees come to their city, Peggy begins to realize that there is a chance she can rise above her station, with the help of old and new friends.

I really enjoyed this book, Peggy is a relatable character, torn between loyalty to her sister, duty to her family, and her own aspirations for something greater than her current path. The reader can't help but hope that Peggy does well, feeling how unjust it was for her to be bound to a life of monotony when her intellect allowed for so much more. I also really enjoyed more of the WW1 storyline as so many novels feature WW2 lately. It's interesting to read how Europe was during the war, especially prior to the Americans deciding to join.

I do think my favorite part might have been the tiny references to The Dictionary of Lost Words that work their way into the book bindery's daily work. The novel is not a true crossover and the references do not require one to have read Dictionary, but it was a pleasant surprise to see the little relations within the books.

This is such a great story set against the war during WWI, as it crosses over from the author’s previous novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, to bring about a story of a two girls, named Peggy and Maude, who work in a bindery just as their Mother did. It was so fun to have glimpses of the last book in this one, and I once again loved the characters and writing.

There was so much detail to research in the writing, and I was fascinated to be transported back to this time period during the war.

*many thanks to Randomhouse and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

The historical setting was good and I learned a lot about the book binding process. However I found the story slow and the characters didn’t really draw me into the story. Maude was the most interesting character.

It takes a lot to draw me into a historical fiction novel and this book had the makings of an awesome story, but didn't deliver for me. It felt shallow and like there were so many missed opportunities to make this book better. It had an important message but didn't do enough to make the story feel real to me as a reader.

Oops. I never should have requested this galley. Not my type of fiction or story. Sorry.. Guess I should keep writing to reach the minimum.

The title, cover, description of this book all intrigued me and had me very excited to dive into this book. And the bibliophile in me very much enjoyed the detailed description of book binding in this historical setting. But while I found much of the history-telling satisfying, I never felt very invested in the characters or their relationships. I wanted to love this book, and ultimately I liked it fine but wasn't as wrapped up in it as I'd hoped to be.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the ARC.

Peggy and Maude are twin sisters working in a bindery in England during WWI. Peggy has always felt she has more to offer, reading and learning and yearning to go to the local college, although she dropped out of school to help take care of Maude. Peggy volunteers and meets Bastiian, a soldier tragically damaged by the war, both physically and mentally. Their relationship develops at the same time Peggy is given an opportunity to go to college. The horrors of war are depicted as many men are injured or killed, while the women have to pick up the pieces at home, hoping things wont go backwards once the war ends. I recommend this book, but it is difficult to read at points, and shows again how much loss is inherent in war. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed parts of this book, but there were other parts that were a little slow.

A stunning look into the life of a bindery girl working through WW1. Peggy was such a special character to have as a narrator, especially as she struggled to find her place in between Town and Gown, as well as in her own family dynamic.

I loved seeing how her relationship developed with her "invisible man", the way they supported each other through hard times brought me to tears.

I have never seen a character like Maude before but she is so amazing. It was really interesting to see how she and Lotte got along.

Tilda's character brought such a refreshing change of pace her letters were always a nice window into the outside world.

I love how supportive Gwen was in her own way. Pushing Peggy to take steps for herself so she could work towards her dream instead of just working.

I absolutely loved The Dictionary of Lost Words and upon seeing Pip Williams had penned another I grabbed it! The setting is slightly different in that it takes place in the Bindery of what is OUP but the world of The Dictionary of Lost Words crosses over into this novel. Peggy and Maude work in the Bindery as their mother before them did. Peggy is smart, ambitious and dreams of more. Maude tethers her dreams until WWI changes their world and perceptions. Other characters from The Dictionary of Lost Words make an appearance and I really enjoyed returning to this world and setting. I am curious if there will be more but I will highly recommend both books to anyone who will listen!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC ebook.

I really enjoyed reading Pip Williams' initial book, "The Dictionary of Lost Words" which is what led me to request this book. Unfortunately, I did not find this one to be quite as enjoyable. I did not feel as connected or invested with the characters that were created and I slogged through it a bit.

I haven't gotten a chance to read The Dictionary of Lost Words yet, but I really, really enjoyed this novel and these characters! I thought it was very well-researched and I learned a lot about book binding and WWI, how it affected life at the homefront, as well as a lot about the women's suffrage movement. Learning all the details that go in to creating a beautiful book is something only a true book lover can appreciate. I look at all my books differently now and think about all the hands its passed through before it got to me. I enjoyed getting to know Peggy and thought her story was one many women can relate to, no matter the era you live in. All women understand the limits their gender brings them in society and the world as a whole. Hearing the struggles women went through back then, only made me appreciate all the women that have came before us to make our quality of life what it is today. And although we have a long way to go, its still nice to see how far we have come. Very emotional and great story telling!

Williams brings readers to early twentieth-century Oxford in this fascinating book. Following Peggy, her sister Maude, and their circle of colleagues and friends, readers experience the outbreak of World War I while learning about the world of bookbinding in one of the great university cities in the world. As time passes, however, Peggy meets new people and grows more discontent with her life as “Town” when she really wants to be “Gown” and attend Somerville College at Oxford. Readers experience Peggy’s complex, shifting emotions, ideas, and experiences throughout the novel and gain an understanding of the home front of World War I. Peggy’s relationships with Maude and the other side characters (who become her friends along the way) are particularly enlightening, charming, and heartwarming, and readers will enjoy the broad cast of characters as well as the many books mentioned throughout the novel. Williams has certainly done her research, focusing on the historical details of World War I and Oxford while also looking into the history of bookbinding and publishing, again with an emphasis on Oxford. The Bookbinder is a fascinating, enjoyable, historical fiction novel, and readers will certainly enjoy Pip Williams’ prose, descriptions, world-building, and character construction in this novel.

I love Pip Williams’ writing but I did find this one to be a little slow moving for me. I love her style and look forward to her next book!

The Dictionary of Lost Words was such a surprise to me because I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. The Bookbinder still held that cozy, historical fiction feel that I loved about the previous book, but unfortunately, I didn't feel connected to the characters in the same way.

Like Pip Williams’ first book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, this book is set at the Oxford University Press during WWI. It’s not a direct sequel, rather, it’s about a different character with some overlap in time. The main character is Peggy, a young woman who works with other women binding books at the press. She has always longed for more, but with their mother dead, she feels a responsibility for her twin sister Maude, who speaks only through repeating other people’s phrases and appears to perhaps in some other way to be neurodivergent as well. The book follows her from the start to the end of WWI, and how her life changes as a result.

This book was definitely on the slower side, but was really good. Peggy was an interesting character, and I loved the setting which really came to life - from the press to the streets of Oxford to the houseboat Peggy and Maude live on. And not knowing anything about Belgian refugees from the war, I found that interesting as well. I must admit I liked Dictionary of Lost Words a little better, but fans of that one should love this one as well.

Pip Williams writes softly, so softly that she allows you time to embrace her characters, their surroundings and the opportunity to know them intimately. Her writing requires attention and concentration because she builds upon her story and its occupants every so slowly. There is much to be told but Williams prefers to drop crumbs and allow the reader to come to her/his own conclusion at the appropriate time with just a few words.

Twins, identical but completely different. One “filters conversation like a prism filters light. She broke it down so that each phrase could be understood as an articulation of something singular. The truth of what she said could be inconvenient; sometimes it made life easier to understand her.” The other aware of their differences feeling the need to protect and preserve. Bindery girls folding pages, one not caring about the content, the other inhaling every word, nuance and thought - they couldn’t be more different although they were identical.

“Keep en eye.”
“Watch over.”
“Deep breath.”

On the cusp of World War I the sisters live a basic life, because this is a basic story of a very basic fight, for among other things, the vote for women, a margin of equality for women, and the work that women have done to wage those good fights. The research is immaculate, for one who has no knowledge Williams introduces the reader to Somerville College, The Clarendon Press, The Oxford University Press always reminding that women had to fight for a place in education, had to fight to break the protocols of class. The story ranges from everyday work at the bindery, to the heartbreaking consequences of war and the Spanish Flu, to the friendships and love that take up residence in the lives of the twins, Maude and Peggy, as the days and years pass.

Intrigued by the introduction of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, it made several appearances and other than addressing a vast myriad of subjects, its inclusion informs and allows the story to embrace the melancholy that Burton wrote about and that Peggy is feeling . It opens the story to the vast ignorance, even by a librarian, of how a book is bound and the segregated sections of the bindery and segues into “a love of learning and overmuch study”. This is an apt description of Peggy and her desire to gain access that is withheld, to matriculate, to be a scholar, to find validation, to be acknowledged.

I enjoyed this book and the attention Pip Williams attributed to her twins, their point in time and circumstances. Her writing is profound in its simplicity with a fine tuned ear to description and dialog. Many, many thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy.