Hey guys, did you know how great Hinduism is? Like, so great! Older and better than any other tradition - after all, it's what all other religions were like before Christianity and Islam and the stamping out of pagan traditions.

That was basically the book. It was absolutely awful. The author was so full of how great Hinduism is, and the bias completely showed through in her work. Also, she mentions all of these special things, for which I couldn't find any corroborating evidence for online. And, over half of her etymology facts were completely wrong - all found by a quick Google search! Not to mention her writing style. The author really needs to learn to not use so many exclamation points.

This book does get greater than one star because I guess it did introduce me to the very basics of Hinduism and their beliefs. But the bias of the author and the ridiculousness of the unverified claims completely ruined the book. I had to push myself to finish it, especially since the author lists no sources for these things, apart from "I was told", etc. Also, the inclusion of a Further Resources section warrants it to get above a 1-star review - hopefully they won't be as awful and as biased and as factually incorrect in places as this book.

Conclusion:

Just get the books from the Further Reading section and read those. This book is too full of how great Hinduism is and is a completely biased look into the tradition. It does offer information on the basics, but the author's attitude completely ruins any objectiveness that might have been found in the books. And, did you know, Hinduism is probably what all other traditions looked like? And everyone smart Greek/Muslim/etc who has ever encountered it loved it?