21 must-read fiction books like The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Cover of The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Dictionary of Lost Words

By: Pip Williams

4.03

Format: 384 pages, Paperback

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the…

"The past came towards me, and I closed the book."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"It is context...that gives meaning. [Harry Nicholl]"

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"Sometimes I think there may be more than two sides."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"She lived between the lines of the Dictionary as much as I did."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

If you liked the fiction plot in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams , here is a list of 21 books like this:

Cover of The Women by Kristin Hannah

1. The Women

By: Kristin Hannah

4.64

Format: 471 pages, Hardcover

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these wor… read more

Similar categories in Kristin Hannah's The Women book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • historical
  • feminism
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Words were creators of worlds; you had to be careful with them."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love mattered in this ruined world, but so did honor. What was one without the other?"

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love. A thing to be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated, not cultivated in secret and clipped into shape in the dark."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

Cover of Homecoming by Kate Morton

2. Homecoming

By: Kate Morton

4.07

Format: 547 pages, Hardcover

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the groun… read more

Similar categories in Kate Morton's Homecoming book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Stress can make even the most loving mother lose control."

-Kate Morton, Homecoming

"What is the truth anyway?" Jess had once been asked by a curious friend. "It's what happened." "According to whom?"

-Kate Morton, Homecoming

"There's other ways to travel." She was right. He had books, and there was no barrier to the places he could visit in his own mind."

-Kate Morton, Homecoming

"Bad things happen to the best of people, and we cannot let them overwhelm us. Life doesn’t always work out the way we plan, but it does work out in the end."

-Kate Morton, Homecoming

Cover of The Berry Pickers by Amanda    Peters

3. The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

4.14

Format: 307 pages, Hardcover

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mys… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Peters's The Berry Pickers book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

4. The Dictionary of Lost Words

By: Pip Williams

4.03

Format: 384 pages, Paperback

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the… read more

Similar categories in Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • british literature
  • historical
  • feminism
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • books about books
  • audiobook
"The past came towards me, and I closed the book."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"Sometimes I think there may be more than two sides."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"It is context...that gives meaning. [Harry Nicholl]"

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

"She lived between the lines of the Dictionary as much as I did."

-Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

Cover of The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

5. The Frozen River

By: Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-cen… read more

Similar categories in Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

6. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

By: Lisa See

4.36

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

* NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!* An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woma… read more

Similar categories in Lisa See's Lady Tan’s Circle of Women book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

7. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of The Covenant of Water by Abraham   Verghese

8. The Covenant of Water

By: Abraham Verghese

4.45

Format: 724 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial ep… read more

Similar categories in Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

9. Lola in the Mirror

By: Trent Dalton

4.41

Format: 448 pages, Kindle Edition

Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, Lola in the Mirror is the irresistible new novel from inter… read more

Similar categories in Trent Dalton's Lola in the Mirror book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • book club
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Horse by Geraldine Brooks

10. Horse

By: Geraldine Brooks

4.27

Format: 401 pages, Hardcover

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American… read more

Similar categories in Geraldine Brooks's Horse book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
"I don't rightly know who was my great-grandfather, much less his father. How come you know that about a horse?"

-Geraldine Brooks, Horse

"She felt a little clandestine, as if she were ten years old again, sneaking a dead rat past her mother so she could articulate a Rattus norvegicus domestica for her bedroom display."

-Geraldine Brooks, Horse

"You have to know that bigots are unwittingly handing you an edge. By thinking you're lesser than they are, they underestimate you. Lean on that. Learn to use it, and you'll get the upper hand."

-Geraldine Brooks, Horse

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

11. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

12. Remarkably Bright Creatures

By: Shelby Van Pelt

4.39

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's u… read more

Similar categories in Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • adult
  • book club
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"How does it feel, you ask? It is comfortable. It is home. I am lucky. I am grateful"

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Day 1,361 of My Captiv- Oh, Let Us Cut the Shit, Shall We? We Have a Ring to Retrieve."

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?"

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

"Humans are the only species who subvert truth for their own entertainment. They call them jokes. Sometimes puns."

-Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

Cover of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

13. Lessons in Chemistry

By: Bonnie Garmus

4.29

Format: 404 pages, Hardcover

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to poi… read more

Similar categories in Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • historical
  • feminism
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Sometimes I think," she said slowly, "that if a man were to spend a day being a woman in America, he wouldn't make it past noon."

-Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

"(On religion) "I think it lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; the ultimately, we're not to blame for t…"

-Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

"Whenever you feel afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change - and change is what we're chemically designed to do. So when you wake up tomorrow, make this pledge. No more holding yourself b…"

-Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

Cover of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

14. Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano

4.16

Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more

Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

Cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

15. Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang

3.77

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says… read more

Similar categories in R.F. Kuang's Yellowface book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • books about books
  • audiobook
"The truth is fluid, there is always another way to spin the story."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"They tell authors never to look at Goodreads, but nobody follows that advice—none of us can resist the urge to know how our work is being received."

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hu…"

-R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

Cover of The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

16. The Marriage Portrait

By: Maggie O'Farrell

4.01

Format: 355 pages, Hardcover

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here. The author of award-winning Hamnet… read more

Similar categories in Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"May I keep this?"

-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

"Was there no hope? the tigress seemed to be asking her. Will I always remain here? Will I never return home?"

-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

"The animal was orange, burnished gold, fire made flesh; she was power and anger, she was vicious and exquisite;"

-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

"Is it possible for a woman to be so unsettled in spirit that a child will have no hope of taking root within her?"

-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

17. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of Weyward by Emilia Hart

18. Weyward

By: Emilia Hart

4.07

Format: 416 pages, Paperback

I am a Weyward, and wild inside. 2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackl… read more

Similar categories in Emilia Hart's Weyward book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
" Altha . A strange name. Soft and yet powerful. Like an incantation."

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"It took skill, Violet thought, to make even your handwriting look angry"

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"She named me Altha, after all. Not Alice, meaning noble woman, nor Agnes, lamb of God. Altha. Healer."

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

"I thought he loved me for myself. But you were right. To him I am but an animal, like those he hunts and puts on display"

-Emilia Hart, Weyward

Cover of The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

19. The Secret Book of Flora Lea

By: Patti Callahan Henry

4.07

Format: 355 pages, Hardcover

When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her mi… read more

Similar categories in Patti Callahan Henry's The Secret Book of Flora Lea book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • british literature
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • books about books
  • audiobook
"The heart can hold much joy and great sorrow at the same time. It's a mystery. And it's also true."

-Patti Callahan Henry, The Secret Book of Flora Lea

"What a fairy tale is meant to do," she said, "if it's meant to do anything at all, Tolkien says, is give us new perspective on our world, the consolation of a happy ending. A recovery of sorts. Like …"

-Patti Callahan Henry, The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Cover of The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

20. The House of Eve

By: Sadeqa Johnson

4.26

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelph… read more

Similar categories in Sadeqa Johnson's The House of Eve book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • romance
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

21. Our Missing Hearts

By: Celeste Ng

3.80

Format: 335 pages, Hardcover

A novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear. Twelve-year-old Bird Gard… read more

Similar categories in Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts book and Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words

  • adult
  • book club
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"Succulents would grow anew from a broken-off leaf, pushing roots out into the air, then down into the soil: a piece of its own body, transformed into its child."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"Evidence of his mother, out there, elsewhere, so worried about somebody else's children though she'd left her own behind. The irony of it leached into his veins."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"Why did I tell you so many stories? Because I wanted the world to make sense to you. I wanted to make sense of the world, for you. I wanted the world to make sense."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

"And we need their generosity to keep this place open. Or, just as likely, someone got nervous and got rid of it preemptively. Us public libraries--a lot of us just can't take the risk."

-Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

17 must-read adult books like The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

Homecoming

Kate Morton

4.07

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Pip Williams

4.03

View all the books

21 must-read fiction books like Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

First Lie Wins

Ashley Elston

4.05

Transform Your Habits

The Paris Daughter

Kristin Harmel

4.25

View all the books

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