This book is a five star read in that it does exactly what it sets out to do: it describes the Buddha's teaching in plain English. It explains some philosophical questions and arguments Buddhists have and Rahula describes his take on these arguments, with some sternness. I understand the main tenets of Buddhism, and underlying philosophy of mindfulness without all the New Age woo woo stuff, which I now see seems to miss the point of Buddhism. Many parallels between Buddhism and the beliefs of the Stoics, and I genuinely think this sort of spiritual outlook, where morals are part and parcel of a path to being spiritual, is the way to go. If you take Buddhism to be a religion more so than a philosophy, then Christianity--and the ways that many people approach the bare bones of Buddhism--look very rough around the edges and cultish. I look forward to reading more books about eastern religions that approach them this way, on their own terms, without accidentally applying the moral rules of western religions to them (i.e. our understanding of karma in the US has been fully westernized and warped to fit with a reactive god). 

The only drawback here is some of the antiqued terms ("purity, defilements") are a product of their time and hard to apply to modern life without thought. That said, I prefer accurate translations to inaccurate ones, and I trust these are accurate.