;-/..
Auto-correct eh? I hate that thing
Coincidentally, I have been feeling post-apopletic off and on lately..but never post-apocalyptic …lol

I can’t recommend it since I haven’t read it yet. But I was intrigued by this book and bought it and plan to read it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Skin_(novel)]

And I bought and loved Harry Harrison’s “Make Room! Make Room!”. It’s the book that Soylent Green (which I have never seen) is loosely based on.

It struck me as a very realistic take on the human future at this rate. I would barely call it science fiction or even fiction. It’s the reality humans try to ignore while hoping that obviously bogus futuristic stuff or really anything but that could eventually result from the ways of a species like ours. The elites are well aware of it, hence the hoarding. Gangsters and gangsters molls heading up a society of a dazed strained crowd of humans is the future! When I read it I realized that this is my prediction of the future. A nightmarish enough one.

Lol…well this eldster has to go work..

So that’s two recs:
1. Under the Skin - Michael Faber
2. Make Room! Make Room! -Harry Harrison

Another one at the top of my list is A Canticle For Leibowitz.
I'm not post-apoplectic yet. I won't be until this administration is over.

Looks interesting. A take on Idiocracy again. I must save it.

Well I am safely half-way around the world from Trump and the GOP - that helps with the apoplexy. I went to school in the US (which was when I found DU), but moved back to the Global South after an academic job far too close to Si Valley (speaking of a deeply anti-intellectual and cultish culture with the trappings of tech.. ).

Thanks for the rec. Definitely looks worth reading and it’s only 320 pages. I love books, but like the OP about 600 pages tops.
I used to at descriptions of “The Mysteries of Udolpho” as described in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.

My mom had a book or two of that kind somewhere I vaguely recollect. Now that is an attention span. Several volumes, a 1000 pages each.

Perhaps not Mysteries of Udolpho. But I recollect the protagonist mentioning some sort of mystery several volumes in length.

It came out in 1959 and has never been out of print.

The story: a man in Florida gets a message from his brother, who is some kind of higher-up with the Air Force in Nebraska has gotten information that a nuclear attack is imminent, and he's sending his wife and children to Florida to be safe.

Amazing and wonderful book. Please read it.

This struck me in its wiki summary:

One of the most objectionable parts of modern technology is how little you need to understand to understand how things work.

I thought years ago that we would be a saner society if you had to know how things work in interesting ways (which to me almost always must involve the physical world not software. I code when I have to but I never found software very interesting) to use them. Our phones and computers are too easy to use. Or difficult to use entirely in annoying ways. Not cool puzzle solving but more like a zillion captchas to prove you are not a robot.

You've raised so many things in your post. We may possibly need an entire new forum for this.

and I thought the unedited version released years later was better.

The mini-series was pretty good, considering it was "made-for-TV" and had that kind of budget

I've stopped reading King because after "Firestarter" he was no longer edited. Aaarrrggggrhhh!!!! He writes at least 30% more verbiage than is needed. Probably a whole lot more. I don't know exactly, because I've stopped reading him. Too bad.

I am a science fiction writer myself. Short stories. I've also edited two anthologies. King needs serious editing, trust me.

but "The Mist", by Stephen King was a good one. And the movie was actually very good also.

Alas Babylon ?
(I read it long ago as a teen, and kept it in my collection all through the years)

It greatly influenced John Lennon's anti-war views, and inspired David Brin classic post-apocalyptic novel The Postman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas,_Babylon