Rating: 
Summary: Connecting my history
Review: Reading this book filled in important gaps in my knowledge of my grandfather. His most famous "medication" was called "grippe mixture", medication he developed as the physician serving a military training camp at the end of WWI. He was quietly proud to have had no fatalities due to flu in 1918.He never talked about the flu, but then he never talked about the worst battles! Kolata's book helped personal research fill in important gaps. A dynamite story along the way, wonderfully told, that became a very "personal read".
Rating: 
Summary: concept or final product?
Review: It is too bad the interview with Ms. Kolata on C-SPAN's "Booknotes" couldn't have been added. What she had to do to attain some of the "stuff" of her book was interesting. Her story may have actually been in the research process. I don't believe this book was meant to be a technical paper but rather a carefully hewn story to further elevate one's curiosity about that tragedy. The "race" to find the virus is what seemed sensationalist and will be the subject of an upcoming NOVA documentary. I wonder just what their projection will be.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent intro a virus and people
Review: Gina Kolata's tapestry of people connected across time by this virus, from those who contracted it to those who are working to understand it, is a fascinating read. She does an wonderful job of intermingling the human aspects of illness, professional inquiry, dedication and politics as they were impacted by this little understood virus. The changes in individual and collective attitudes and technical capabilities over the years as people researched the virus and distanced themselves from the outbreak of the illness is particularly interesting. Also noteworthy is the contrast between individual and group approaches to issues arising in the quest to isolate the virus and to prevent it recurrence, particularly when those individuals aren't part of an "inner circle".
Rating: 
Summary: Haaaa-chu!
Review: A marginally interesting tome that would be better as a 10 page article. The work is in dire need of a good editor (eg pg 38 "it was not until 1900-the first time since cities came into existence five thousand years earlier-that large cities could maintain their populations without constant influxes of immegrants" vs pg47 "By the dawn of the twentieth centery, for the first time since cities had come into existence 5,000 years before, infectious diseases were staunched to such an extend that cities were able to remain stable, and even grow, without depending on a constant stream of migrants...") The book also wrestles with contradictory premises: that the great pandemic is all but forgotten, however its searing memory spawned knee-jerk rections in the US during the 70's Swine Flu debacle and Hong Kong's recent chicken massacre? The story _is_ interesting, but the 'filer' (long tangential discussions) and the constant appearance of 'august' scientists made for a dull read.
Rating:
Summary: Good overview of the disease and politics of epidemiology
Review: The beginning adequately describes the lethality of this virus (how many times does one need to describe the deaths of hundreds per month). The rest of the book is a great overview of who did what, what could have gone wrong, what accidentally went right, what pressures exist for epidemiologists, why emergence leads to unplanned results, and more. A really scary statement is that in Russia lately, people have tried to acquire the Smallpox virus from cadavers in the permafrost. A very worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: I WANT MY MONEY BACK
Review: I was extremely disappointed in this book. For 2 years I have been gathering data from primary sources here in my county on the 1918 Epidemic and it's effects on our local history. I'm usually thrilled to find anything written on this subject. Ms. Kolata gets barely a passing grade for the first 4 1/2 chapters. Then she departs into a long rambling tale of the swine flu vaccine fiasco of the middle 1970's. None of which has anything to do with the mystery and mayhem of the 1918 pandemic. Several pages are consumed with biographical info on Dr.Hultin, while interesting it belongs elsewhere. Of the dozens of gifted men and women who have tackled this subject why focus on one or two for personal biographies? The author never seriously explores one of the burning questions, how did the virus travel around the world and arise everywhere at almost the same exact time? For the layperson (that would be me!)I believe it is more important to explore that question rather than to know exactly how to slice a tissue sample. If you read this book for the information on "the search for the virus that caused it", you will probably be satisfied. If you are looking to it for a history of what the pandemic was like and how it meshed with the world of 1918, you will no doubt be disappointed. In short, if you have never heard of the 1918 flu epidemic then you may be satisfied with this book. However if you have even a cursory knowledge of the subject you will probably wish like I do that you had spent your money on something else.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing - poorly written book
Review: I was so disappointed by this book that I'm actually writing a review here! This book feels like it was written in great haste. Kolata fails to find or depict compelling conflicts, personalities or science... and her writing comes close to being excruciating! For a great piece of recent science writing check out the _Baltimore Case_ instead.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting, but could have been so much better
Review: I've been fascinated by this flu since I read Malcolm Gladwell's article in the New Yorker. When I heard about this book, I hoped that he had written it. Alas. Kolata has done a good job producing a page turner, and she handily explains a lot of scientific information, but the story could have been woven together in a much more compelling way. Plus, some of the material, such as the extensive chapter on litigation, felt tangental. I was fascinated by the fact that Hultin had gone back to Alaska and successfully removed tissue while the Duncan team, to great fanfare, failed. I hadn't read about Hultin's success the way I read about the Duncan hype (in the media). That story could have been told better by Kolata, I thought. Not to put the book down....I really enjoyed reading it. But it could have been great.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: the book was by far on of the best books I have read in a long time! Not quite sure how historically correct it was, but that did not take anything away from the book! Ms. Kolata does an good job of conveying the historical significance of the virus, while keeping the story fresh and interesting! I would suggest this book to others, even people who would not normally go for this type of book!
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Summary: Half the title is a misnomer; a superficial account at best
Review: While this book was hardly a complete waste of time, it was also a great disappointment. It was decidedly not an account of "The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918." (Since I finished this book, I have begun Alfred Crosby's "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918," a far superior account of what actually happened in 1918-19.) Even where this book has some strength--in recounting the story of several post-1918 attempts to discover the original virus that caused the 1918 outbreak--it seems to be written in a rather shallow, journalistic style. The book shows all the signs of having been hastily prepared for the mass market. One would have expected better from a science writer from the New York Times, but perhaps her acumen as a writer has been warped by the nature of the beat she covers (e.g., cloning).
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