Rating: 
Summary: A Good Introduction to this Fascinating Episode in History..
Review: I first learned about the 1918 Influenza pandemic in 1998 when I read a newspaper article about the anniversary of the episode. I was fascinated that so many people could be killed by the flu! Today, we consider the flu a minor inconvenience, not a life-threatening disease. So, I was very interested to read this book. Gina Kolata is a good story teller -- she plays up the "medical thriller" aspect of the story. The story takes you from Philadelphia to Alaksa to Washington DC, and all the time, Kolata -- the journalist that she is -- makes you feel as if you are right there. I was disappointed, however, that the coverage of the actual events of 1918 was confined to the first chapter only. I had hoped to read more in-depth, personal stories about the people who were killed by the flu, and the affect that it had on those who survived. For the most part, the characterization of the flu pandmic is sweeping and general. The remainder of the book deals with the search for the virus that caused the 1918 flu, and the efforts to create a vaccine against it.
Rating:
Summary: The Amazing and True Story of Scientists and Amateurs
Review: Gina Kolata's Flu is subtitled the Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It. It is much more the story of the latter rather than the former. An important book on the influenza pandemic and its historical impact is waiting to be written. This book, though, still has its value both as a fun read of scientific discovery and some very inept amateur bungling, as well as an interesting look at the politics behind science. The author is also very good at capturing the personalities behind the events. No important conclusions are drawn and no important theories of history are defended but this book is a wonderful examination of a process in science. A delightful read.
Rating:
Summary: about right for the armchair crowd
Review: If you're looking for a highly detailed and relatively technical discussion you might find this book a little light. However, if you, like me, have just the general exposure to the subject of epidemics, their causes and consequences, you are likely to have a good read here.A couple times Ms. Kolata's prose and approach get a little dramatic but it doesn't get in her way as far as telling the story and a little honest feeling for the subject is hardly a bad thing. Comparisons to 'The Hot Zone' are inevitable but not quite accurate. 'The Hot Zone' deals with diseases still very much a threat and almost supernaturally spooky in their virulence and mystery. 'Flu' is more a forensic look at a disease that is familiar and whose flirtation with serious mortality has, so far, been a one-time thing. Say 'Ebola' to someone and they react: where is it? how bad is it? is this the time it will get loose? Say 'flu' and most people shrug. We've all been there, done that. Influenza is a familiar, if unwelcome, guest every year. Reading Ms. Kolata's book won't exactly have you hiding under your bed come next flu season, but you might not be quite so inclined to cavalierly skip the innoculation campaign either.
Rating: 
Summary: Frightening but an excellent read
Review: Highly readable though this book I'm sure was not written to make you an expert on the subject. If you know nothing about the Flu epidemic of 1918 nor other quasi flu epidemics and near misses that have occured since, this book will effectively acquaint you with all of them. I would say that Ms Kolata's style is somewhat journalistic breezy and and her presentation of the material to some no-nonsense type readers might be off putting. But to my mind she very carefully builds her story so that by the conclusion we have surveyed many of the players, including the various viruses, and then she let's us all down softly as no real satisfying conclusion seems available at this time. I particularly liked the details of the virus hunters and scientists and felt that these characterizations were absolutely necessary to the premise of the book. In fact I was quite inspired by their stories.
Rating:
Summary: Could the 1918 Influenza Epidemic happen again?
Review: In one year, 1918, The Great Flu Epidemic killed more people than any other single event in world history to date; an estimated 40 million people lost their lives. And they were primarily young and healthy. In the early 20th Century, people who survived the diseases of childhood were relatively robust. Yet they were the primary victims of this plague. So many young parents died in Boston that the Italian Home for Children was created to handle the orphans of Italian immigrant families who had settled there. Interestingly, the first signs of the epidemic were in Boston and nearby Fort Devens, where returning troops may have brought the disease. This was a world epidemic that spread even from Patagonia to the Arctic. We often read about the Black Plague of the Middle Ages, where almost a third of the populatiion in parts of Europe perished. But we hear very little on the Influenza Epidemic (only that it killed more people than WWI) and not much more. The most fascinating part of the book deals with an astonishing effort to try to resurrect the genes of the 1918 flu from preserved lung tissue of a flu victim that had been stored in a vast government warehouse. The scientists were attempting to piece together the relationship of the 1918 virus (this must be the finest example of a viral archeological sample) to the 1997 Hong Kong Flu. The HK 1997 flu shared some scary similarities to the 1918 flu symptoms--young, healthy people were dying, their lungs suddenly filling up with pneumonia-like fluids. This leads to the question if the 1918 epidemic could happen again? Gina Bari Kolata is an esteemed science reported for the New York Times and has been almost obsessed by the mystery of this epidemic. She is well qualified to write such a medical/scientific mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Great historical overview, rather weak storytelling
Review: First, whoever designed the cover and spine of this book should be fired. While sitting on your bookshelf the neon green spine jumps out and the lettering makes it look like some cheesy sci-fi tripe. Which is unfortunate, because it's a very informative book and full of excellent research. It's odd that the great flu epidemic got relegated to an historical footnote, because it's scale was devastating and frightening. It's also likely that sometime in the future a similar outbreak will jump from animal to man in south China or somewhere similar. And the results today would dwarf the original flu epidemic and make SARS seem like a mild fever. This book makes for fascinating reading on these counts and it's very interesting to follow how the scientists went back to uncover the flu's origins.
Like many psuedo-historical books of this nature, however, the author is much less skilled as a writer than she is as a researcher. She tries too hard to inject the book with drama when the subject matter itself is sufficiently dramatic. Thus reading it becomes irritating at times because the prose and bad melodrama gets to you, but you nonetheless don't want to stop reading and not get all of the information.
Rating:
Summary: Science Thriller
Review: From cover to cover, I found this book absolutely riveting. Reads more like a piece of investigative journalism than a typical science book. Kolata weaves together the periodic outbreaks of flu into a fascinating pattern that reveals a terrifying potential. The mixed reviews are not indicative of a mediocre book. Readers looking for a science textbook or a detailed historical account of 1918 may be disappointed. However, readers looking for a gripping, non-fictional explanation of one the most important ongoing stories affecting the planet will have a memorable experience. I read this book many years ago, but few books have stuck in my mind or affected my thinking more.
Rating:
Summary: Important History
Review: I could not put this book down. Gina Kolata does a fantastic job of telling the history of the flu. She presented stories within the story of the flu. One of the most fascinating parts of the book was about Johan Hultin who came to America from Sweden to attend Iowa University and how life's twists and turns brought him to a destiny of studying the flu virus.
The 1918 flu pandemic was of personal interest also, because our family history contains a victim of the 1918 flu. Kolata's book opens up a understanding of what it must have been like to have lived in that time. I would highly recommend to anyone in genealogy who has an ancestor that passed away at an early age due to this influenza.
Definiely a important history to think about for years past and years to come, especially in light of the SARS outbreak originating in the Guangdong provice in China. I was especially intrigued when I read the section about the 1968 Hong Kong flu. It too originated in the same province that supplies 80% of Hong Kong's chickens.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a bad high school research paper...
Review: This book actually contains some information on the flu epidemic, but it is precious hard to sort out from all the totally irrelevant stuff. If you're interested in the interior decorating skills or love affairs of the scientists looking for the DNA of the 1918 flu virus, then by all means read this book. But if you want to know about the epidemic itself, there have *got* to be better sources of information. This book reads like a bad high school research paper-- a little actual information, and a whole lot of empty filler to meet the page requirement.
Rating:
Summary: Meandering
Review: This book reads like an over long movie. The plot is good, the characters interesting, but of the 306 pages in this book, a good 150 to 200 could have been excised. They relate at most only tangentially to the 1918 flu epidemic. The reader really needs to work at finding and keeping the focus. Perhaps a better title would have been Flu: a stream of consciousness essay on the Swine Flu of 1976, John Dalton and color blindness and by the way, the 1918 Flu pandemic. Disappointing.
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