1/ Book 5/52: "The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel," by Jeffrey Lewis @ArmsControlWonk . 
2/ Highly recommended. A smooth mix of recent military and political history, nuclear technology, targeting doctrines, escalation theory, launch procedures, command/control/communications breakdown, and — ultimately — the effects of these weapons on human bodies and property.
3/ It's far more readable than its frame narrative would suggest: the rhythm is closer to Tom Clancy potboiler than government report. It's shot through with Strangelovian humor. It's horrifyingly, compellingly plausible. I blew through its 270 pages in two days.
4/ I learned about brawling Edo-period Japanese firefighters and explosive lens geometry, North Korean concrete and the economics of missile defense.
5/ There are inside jokes for listeners of the author's Arms Control Wonk podcast (e.g. the disco ball of death …
6/ … and the deadbeat dad TELs [3]).
7/ Even the one part I found excessive at first turns out to be instructive. The rather maudlin and gory accounts of the aftermath given in the novel by American, Japanese, and South Korean victims are actually those of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
8/ Only the attribution is fictional.
9/ You should read this book before the midterms. If ever there were cause to be a single-issue voter, this would be it.
10/ You should also take the author's suggestion and read some of John Hersey's powerful first-hand accounts of the Hiroshima attack.
newyorker.com/magazine/1946/…
newyorker.com/magazine/1946/…
11/x That is all. Maybe some lighter fare for the next one.
