I'd argue that this is a book you need to read at least twice: the first time bearing witness and the second time for deeper understanding. When I tell you I was hooked on Annie Jacobsen's EVERY! WORD! She manages to illustrate a hypothetical doomsday scenario with an accessible yet detailed prowess, unraveling the timeline of a fallout down to the minute, sometimes down to the second. Make no mistake, this is the scariest book I have ever read. It's visceral and unflinching. It's intense. But I think it should also be required reading, because even if a hypothetical scenario deviates from what Jacobsen posits, her message could not be received more clearly: there are no winners in an act of nuclear war, nothing good comes from an arena of destruction.