I guess most posters are going to post what they've read, and their take on it. Here's my take.
I read Palmer's book first and found it to be excellent. It was generally well-written, contains very useful tables and references, contains highly practical information, and balances brevity with explanation much to my liking. I've dog-eared several of its tables for reference when creating recipes. My only complaint--I finished the book thinking that racking to a secondary vessel should be standard homebrew practice, but I recently learned (on HBT) that he (Palmer) no longer emphasizes this as much, and many homebrewers don't rack to a secondary except in particular, relatively uncommon circumstances (see multiple threads on HBT, particularly those by Revvy). So I racked a few times when I might've saved myself some labor and worry, no biggie. The book is outstanding. I've got a solid math, science, and engineering background, so I appreciated the formulas, but honestly, it might be a bit overwhelming for someone who doesn't like math and science. This is THE BOOK I use to craft my own recipes, which is a very enjoyable part of homebrewing for me. I feel quite confident in my recipe design abilities, and I owe it to JP.
I am currently reading "Yeast" and find it hard to maintain my momentum. The homebrewer can find lots of relevant and usual tips, but not without undue effort. The chapters are long, loosely organized, even unwieldy at times--not very (ahem) digestible. Homebrewers are clearly not the only people reading this book. It's also written for use in commercial breweries. The mixing of audiences must have been hard for the authors to manage, and it shows. Take this sentence: "For the homebrewer...can sterilize them in an autoclave." Can I? Really? "Honey, are you still using the autoclave? I need it tonight." And let's be honest, commercial brewers probably don't want to know how to make their own magnetic stirrers either. A Cliff's notes version of "Yeast" should be written with practical tips condensed only for the homebrewer, and another edition of this book should be written for commercial types without homebrewer references--two audiences, two books. The book is reasonably well-written, though seemingly imperfectly edited (e.g. the paragraph on yeast vitality seems to confuse vitality with viability in one sentence, unless I missed the exact point the author was trying to make, but I don't believe I did.). I noticed another apparent error in a table that indicates 3.0 "doublings" occur when going from 100 to 400 billion cells. Maybe I'm being too picky here. These are minor points to most people, but I expect published materials to be free of errors. I will be glad to finish reading the book so I can go back later and use it as a reference. In the end I will likely be satisfied, but not thrilled, with my purchase of this book. Now if I could just save up enough for my spectrophotometer, my Carlsberg flask, and my gas chromatograph....
I enjoyed "Brew Like a Monk", though I would quibble about the title. After reading it I don't feel confident enough to make my own Belgian style ale. It's not that the information isn't in there. It is. The way the book is organized (by breweries and their beers), doesn't lend itself well to a step by step guide, which the title might suggest. I wouldn't change the book's organization, however. It reads well, and the author is engaging. It's the most enjoyable read I've listed. I found a fair number of typos in the tables within, mostly errors in reporting specific gravity (e.g. 10.85 instead of 1.085). That doesn't change the meaning to me, because I know it's a simple mistake, however, when I see the same error on multiple pages, it tells me the book wasn't proofread adequately enough. In the end, I was thoroughly satisfied with the book, and I even gave it away to another brewer and bought another copy. It's just not a really "how to" book, in my opinion.
I found "Brew Chem 101" to be a quick and easy, but somewhat forgettable, read. I don't anticipate using it much as I homebrew, but it's nice to have read it. I think the author did a good job of presenting information on chemistry and chemicals at an appropriate level for most homebrewers, but I might be off about this because I have more than an average knowledge of chemistry.
- many youtube vids, many step by steps, Palmer's online (rev1). I have maybe 15 brews under my belt, 4 all grain...I have an understanding of the basics for HOW to brew a good beer, I have no clue how to craft a recipe and wwowuld like to learn, etc. I will be buying a few on Amazon today or tomorrow. I do not know if it's a necessity but up to date would be preferred. 
