1. An apparatus comprising: a hardware transactional memory system configured to receive an early release indication for a specified word of a group of two or more words in a read set of an active atomic memory transaction attempt, wherein: the hardware transactional memory system is configured to remove the group of words from the read set in response to: receiving the early release indication and determining that no word in the group other than the specified word has been speculatively read during the active atomic memory transaction attempt.