The Atomic Weight of Love

By: Elizabeth J. Church

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

In the spirit of The Aviator's Wife and Loving Frank, this resonant debut spans the years from World War II through the Vietnam War to tell the story of a woman whose scientific ambition is caught up in her relationships with two very different men.

For Meridian Wallace - and many other smart, driven women of the 1940s - being ambitious meant being an outlier. Ever since she was a young girl, Meridian had been obsessed with birds, and she was determined to get her PhD, become an ornithologist, and make her mother's sacrifices to send her to college pay off. But she didn't expect to fall in love with her brilliant physics professor, Alden Whetstone. When he's recruited to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to take part in a mysterious wartime project, she reluctantly defers her own plans and joins him.

What began as an exciting intellectual partnership devolves into a "traditional" marriage. And while the life of a housewife quickly proves stifling, it's not until years later, when Meridian meets a Vietnam veteran who opens her eyes to how the world is changing, that she realizes just how much she has given up. The repercussions of choosing a different path, though, may be too heavy a burden to bear.

Elizabeth Church's stirring debut novel about ambition, identity, and sacrifice will ring true to every woman who has had to make the impossible choice between who she is and who circumstances demand her to be.

©2016 Elizabeth J. Church (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Oh, what an incandescent debut.... Church follows one extraordinary woman who is brave enough to challenge the times, take defiant wing, and chart her own extraordinary flight path.... I never wanted the story to end." (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You)

"[Narrator Jennifer] Van Dyck voices Meridian with depth, articulating her dazzling intelligence and delicately revealing her growing identity as she finally pursues her own passions. Van Dyck also has the knack for convincingly distinguishing each character." ( AudioFile magazine)

Screw this book

I hated that the scientific stuff was too short. The characters sucked as people. Great cartoons, but not real people. The main character sucked and was unlike able and unbelievable. It was like reading about cardboard cutouts pretending to have real lives.

So glad I didn't buy this book.

Love Birds

Started out with lots of potential for things to happen but became bogged down with too many details of the protagonist finding herself. For Baby Boomers, some reminiscence of "things" from the 50s, 60s and 70s, such as the avocado colored refrigerators and the first color televisions, were fun to recall. The juxtaposition of people and birds was engaging.

More please!

My mother was same age as the character. She was a suppressed educated women, forced to leave her nursing due to marriage. Forced to be the perfect girdled mother who could conduct the perfect dinner party. Being in the genteel South added an additional layer of social expectation. This story brought back to me the memory of our shared stories as women in a time when men ruled. I loved it

Story of a woman finding her inner strength

The main character, Meridien, is a woman with above average intelligence born at a time and in a society where were expected to but their needs after their husbands. Marriage and children were supposed to be totally fulfilling. The book illustrates the frustration and sadness many women felt until the Women's Movement in the 1960's in the United States. In current day, it is a good reminder of the issues and choices women struggled with that caused them to push societal change. They paved the way for women to now enjoy many options of marital status, sexuality, meaningful work vs. stay at home mom, and financial freedom. (Meridien's husband is portrayed a bit one dimensional, but even that makes a point.)

Science. Art. Love. and Life.

A wonderfully raw perspective on marriage, compromise, death, love, age, intelligence, and nature. This book is relatable in so many ways!!

Side note: It's (sometimes startlingly) rated R (sex and gore), but is still written in a realistic, artful manner, and is crucial to character development.

Mid 20th century women and sacrifice

The best book on women, freedom, commitment...and the changes life puts us all through. Told by a woman who could be one of our aunts, teachers, or friends. An eye into the atomic bomb for those who think it all evil, and the Vietnam war from youthful perspective. Your heart will fall in love with Meridian!

Fantastic, smart, touching, and thoughtful.

The relationships and their progression throughout the story are the highlight of this story, for me. There is a beautiful balance between science and soul.

Amazing!

And extremely sensitive porch rail about a woman's journey to wholeness. A story we can all learn from.

Love this book!

Loved the evolution of the main character and the description of bird behavior and how it mirrors human behavior. The historical context was seamlessly integrated into this compelling story. Good narration ( which is something quite rare)

not what I expected!!

I absolutely adored this book...from start to finish it is a unique expression of the evolution of one woman and all women over the course of her lifetime. truth be told I found myself analyzing my own life to see how I would measure up to Meridian. the reader is excellent and the lessons learned priceless. I'll be rereading this one many times over.