The category of 'A book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with' for the 2016 Reading Challenge led me to read about India. And the book is 'Nothing but the facts, ma'am'. There is no part of this book that is particularly conversational; it reads like the background sections of dissertations. However, the information presented does make the point that India's customs and cultures (and there are a plethora of both) are varied, dynamic, and complicated. As of the printing of this book, the cast system is alive and well, as is the gender hierarchy and religious status. What makes outsider understanding difficult is that there are multiple levels within all aspects of the culture and these change depending on outside influences. For instance, within the Hindu religion, there are the main deities, plus those associated with a region, a village, and a home - and all may be different. Now that I've read this book, I don't know that I understand much more than I did; I do know that what I thought I understood was inaccurate. ( )