Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but shallow.
Review: I found this book to be disappointing. Given the rich material at the heart of the flu story (molecular biology, genetics, virology) I had hoped that this science would, albeit at a layman's level, be the center of the story. Instead the book is largely a collection of anecdotes about a subset of those who tried to reconstruct the virus. Such material could better have been dealt with, more briefly, in (for example) a New Yorker magazine article. One exception - the last 10 pages describe some of the scientist's insights into how this virus might have become so lethal. The too-brief discussion of these theories provides the reader with some food for thought. It is ashame that the author included so little material of this type. Summary - if your interest is with the people involved in this detective work, this book is worth a read. If your interest is in the underlying science this book will likely disappoint you.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Searching for a Story
Review: "Flu" is a quick, easy, read that skims over the 1918 Pandemic and introduces the reader to the current science of influenza. What I am most greatful for is the book's introducing me to Crosby's "America's Forgotten Pandemic". However, the book draws no solid conclusions, and has no real ending. It also leaves threads hanging at the conclusion. (We are never told from what virus strain (H?N?) the recovered RNA indicated the 1918 flu belonged. Finally, the chatty biographies of the books personalities were really annoying to have to wade through. (Does it really matter that Kirsty Duncan does Celtic dancing?) Pass this up and go straight to "America's Forgotten Pandemic".
Rating:
Summary: The worst kind of science writing
Review: There's about half a book on the influenza epidemic of 1918 here, the rest is cluttered up with meaningless information--the names of peoples' children, the colors of their eyes, the kinds of cars they drive, etc--who cares. This book could have used some serious editing. The history is cursory--there's actually very little described about the epidemic and its immediate and long term aftermath. The narrative is cluttered; the story moves along and then detours to describe the most irrelevant facts. The science is fairly light-weight, and not especially elucidating--you will learn very few facts about the flu in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Morbid, but Very Good
Review: Yes, it's a morbid subject, seemingly all the more so as nearly everyone in my community and workplace is coming down with this year's unusually violent flu bug. But it's an intriguing piece of reporting and lives up to its hype as a true life "mystery." There's some redundancy in details and facts that add a little annoyingly to the length, but all in all this book is as spell-binding as any well-done documentary (almost begs a PBS/Ken Burns treatment). I bought this book out of personal interest; my ninety year old mother lost both a brother and her father to the pandemic and still clearly recalls the details of their illness, their deaths and the enormous toll the flu took on her small farming community in 1918. But as proof of the book's premise, were it not for her family anecdotes, nowhere in the course of my general knowledge of American history or layman's awareness of Twentieth Century medical science have I elsewhere ever heard about or respected the scope and devastation of this alarmingly under-reported event. It's a chilling chapter of our national and world experience, made real and remarkably accessible in Gina Kolata's fine work.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to the 1918 flu story
Review: For those familiar with the intricacies of the 1918 flu, this book may not be one to keep on the bookshelves. However, for those (such as myself) who know about this pandemic only peripherally, it was an entertaining and engaging introduction to the devastation of the 1918 influenza epidemic. But most intriguingly, this book places the 1918-19 pandemic into the current world view of disease and how we can and should respond to it. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I appreciated very much reading about the swine flu vaccination fiasco and the subsequent "bird-flu" interventions. What this book has done for me is ignited my interest in studying it further (is there any greater compliment?) and introduced me to some of the scientists investigating the pandemic currently (though I do agree with a previous reviewer that the depiction of Dr. Duncan was a bit inappropriate). But most importantly, the pandemic is interpreted in the science and medicine of today, with an eye on the future. I would heartily recommend this book to people interested in medicine, immunology, or virology....especially if they, like I, have not been introduced to this topic in their schooling. And now I am going to order the Crosby book!
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a mystery novel
Review: I was hooked on this book from the beginning. I am always reading and lately have had a hard time finding a book that could keep my attention, until Flu. I don't remember how I learned of it but I did, I bought it, and I really liked it. I definitely recommend it especially if you're bored with the same old storylines.
Rating: 
Summary: Praise for FLU
Review: "Kolata's medical detective story is packed with new information and astonishments . . . She has produced not only a chilling read but also a book that, like Paul de Kruif's classic Microbe Hunters, could jump-start a new generation of medical researchers."--R.Z. Sheppard, Time
Rating: 
Summary: it's.... ok.
Review: I'm amused by the one reviewer who gave this book 5 stars, and who starts out by citing Gina Kolata's article in the The New Yorker. That was indeed an excellent article. But Gina Kolata didn't write it. The reviewer's judgment is about as reliable as his or her facts. 5 stars? What are you smoking? the other reviewers are generally correct: the book is superficial, does not spend sufficient time on the 1918 pandemic itself (for example, here in Memphis I believe-- don't quote me-- it led to the founding of St. Jude's Hospital, now a major research center), and does do a fairly good job on current science. By no means is this a superb book, but it's... ok.
Rating:
Summary: This is a really, really frightening book
Review: I first became interested in new research on the 1918 flu epidemic when I read Gina Kolata's New Yorker article about teams of researchers on the track of the illness. She seemed to have hit the story at the right time: here was modern medicine with all its bells and whistles looking for any remaining tissue samples from victims of the most devastating pandemic in the history of the world in order to keep it from happening again. The statistics: Between September and December 1918, as many as 100 million people died of the flu, which raged through remote Arctic villages, Western Samoa, Philadelphia, and Cape Town with equal fury. The first cases were reported around the world on nearly the same day, and the flu was gone before the New Year with no traces remaining. It killed far more people than anthrax, Ebola, the Black Death, and AIDS, more people than died in World War I, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam combined. And the majority of victims were in the prime of life. What was this flu, and could it happen again? The race to find tissue samples from victims 80 years later sent researchers to northern Alaska, where bodies may not have defrosted since being buried, and to northern Norway where the bodies of young miners may hold fragments of the virus. Military specimen vaults were plumbed in search of tissue samples from 1918 victims. Expecting some kind of resolution, Kolata follows two teams of competing scientists who want to discover the genetic make up of this flu, and create a vaccine. The swine flu and the recent Hong Kong Duck Flu seemed wakeup calls to the possibility of another deadly epidemic. The result is terrifying: even with all the advances of modern science, researchers still cannot isolate the 1918 virus and protect us against it. "Flu" is one terrifying tale, and suspenseful enough to tempt you to call in sick. But knowing what sick really is, you probably won't.
Rating:
Summary: More Praise for FLU
Review: "A fascinating tale . . . Kolata spins out this remarkable scientific detective story . . . with verve, clarity and nightmarish detail."--Helen Fisher, The New York Times
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