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Image for event: Thursday Afternoon Book Discussion

Registration now closed

Thursday Afternoon Book Discussion

"The Dictionary of Lost Words" by Pip Williams

2024-08-01 13:30:00 2024-08-01 14:30:00 America/New_York Thursday Afternoon Book Discussion Do you have afternoons available? Join us at the library for some coffee, confections, and conversation about the newest titles on our shelves! 📚 ☕ James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library - Beth Patridge Meeting Room

Thursday, August 01
1:30pm - 2:30pm

Add to Calendar 2024-08-01 13:30:00 2024-08-01 14:30:00 America/New_York Thursday Afternoon Book Discussion Do you have afternoons available? Join us at the library for some coffee, confections, and conversation about the newest titles on our shelves! 📚 ☕ James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library - Beth Patridge Meeting Room

James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library

Beth Patridge Meeting Room

Do you have afternoons available? Join us at the library for some coffee, confections, and conversation about the newest titles on our shelves! 📚 ☕

This month we will be discussing: "The Dictionary of Lost Words" by Pip Williams

"In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realizes that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it."

✹ Because this is a newer title be sure to put it on hold in advance either in book, e-book, or audiobook form by clicking on the book title above or by downloading the Libby App! 

👈 Register for bookclub reminders! 

James M. Duncan Jr. Branch Library

kpayne@alexlibraryva.org
Phone: 703.746.1705
Fax: 703.746.1785

Hours
Mon, Oct 28 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Tue, Oct 29 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Wed, Oct 30 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Thu, Oct 31 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Fri, Nov 01 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Sat, Nov 02 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, Nov 03 1:00PM to 5:00PM

About the branch

Parking: There is a small lot with 9 spaces.  On street parking is available.

Public Transit:

  • Metrorail: Yellow and Blue lines at Braddock Road (1.3 miles) and King Street Stations (1.5 miles)
  • Metrobus: 10A, 10B
  • DASH Bus: 33

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact jgregorio@alexlibraryva.org or call 703.746.1701 or TTY 703.746.1790.

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Tue, Nov 05, 10:15am - 10:45am
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Tue, Nov 05, 11:15am - 11:45am
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