Reddit reviews Warday and the Journey Onward

What I'm describing is the worst case scenario. Even in the 80s, when the US and USSR combined had over 60,000 weapons, humanity would survive. The southern hemisphere would be fairly untouched in the initial attack (possibly aside from some targets in Australia and New Zealand). They'd suffer terribly from the sudden lack of trade and no doubt a shitload of people would starve due to nuclear winter, but people would survive.

Even within the superpowers, some people would survive. Most if not all large urban areas would get hit, but plenty of smaller towns and rural areas would not. They would then suffer enormous hardship, but they wouldn't all die.

For a fairly realistic (as far as I can tell, in my well-read but highly non-expert eyes) take on what a real nuclear war might look like, I suggest reading:

• The Cuban Missile War - An examination of what might have happened if the Cuban Missile Crisis had gone hot. (Spoiler alert: the USSR's long-range capability at the time was quite poor, so the US comes out of it relatively intact.)
  
• Protect and Survive - A scenario where the Cold War went hot in 1984 (which it nearly did in reality).
  
• Warday and the Journey Onward - This one involves a limited attack on the US, so not entirely relevant to what would happen in an all-out war, but it's really well written and the demonstration of what it would be like for people near a target is good.

Read this book, WarDay by Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka. Pretty much an exploration of what you're talking about.

2 books I've not seen mentioned here yet:
Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka and Arc Light by Eric L. Harry.

War Day

http://www.amazon.com/Warday-Journey-Onward-Whitley-Strieber/dp/0030707315/ref=pd_sim_b_44

You might find War Day interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0030707315/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

It’s been a while, but I remember really enjoying War Day

https://www.amazon.com/Warday-Journey-Onward-Whitley-Strieber/dp/0030707315