Research marches onward, but we're still at the mercy of something as simple as the flu. Veteran journalist Gina Kolatas Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It presents a fascinati. Through letters, interviews, and news reports, she pieces together a cautionary tale that captures the horror of a devastating illness.

How could this disease, now almost trivial to healthy young people, have become so virulent? The answer is complex, invoking epidemiology, immunology, and even psychology, but Kolata cuts a swath through medical papers and statistical reports to tell a story of an out-of-control virus exploiting an exhausted world on the brink of transition into modern society. (The disease affected 20- to 40-year-olds disproportionately.) She also looks at the social and personal effects of the disease, from improved public health awareness to the loss of productivity. Flu by Gina Kolata (3 stars) Not quite what I was expecting.

Kolata reports on the scientific investigation of this bizarre outbreak, in particular the attempts to sequence the virus' DNA from tissue samples of victims. Remains of the 1918 pandemic flu virus have been discovered in the frozen bodies of victims. This tragedy, just on the heels of World War I and far more deadly, so traumatized the survivors that few would talk about it afterward. Feeling tired, achy, and congested? You'll hope not after reading science writer Gina Kolata's engrossing Flu, a fascinating look at the 1918 epidemic that wiped out around 40 million people in less than a year and afflicted more than one of every four Americans.

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