The Big Fat Surprise:

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet By: Nina Teicholz
Non-Fiction: Science,History, Food/Cooking, 337 pages
Book Count: 4

This book, like many food science books on this list over the last year, is about the history of how we got the Standard American Diet, and how the science of nutrition does not back that as a good diet.  As it is newer it includes a lot more information on scientific tests done over the last decade, and the newest info on cholesterol, including the newest particle types  found in it and how each effects or doesn't effect one's risk of heart disease.  It also goes into how the things that people replaced saturated fat with maybe or is worst than what they replaced.  This sections actually deal less with the sugar/starch that most books of this type spend much of their time on, and more on the polyunsaturated fats, trans fats, and the newer fats that are being created to replace trans fats.

Take the Monkeys and Run:

Take the Monkeys and Run: (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #1) By: Karen Cantwell
Fiction: Mystery, E-book

Barbara Marr's life has gone down hill fast: her husband has moved out, she is turning 45, and there is a tree full of monkeys in her yard, possibly from the creepy, empty, house near her, dubbed "The House of Bones."  From there things just get weird.  The story has many twists and turns, some that were fairly easy to see coming, but that did not diminish the story too much.  

I Knead My Mommy:

I Knead My Mommy: and Other Poems by Kittens By: Francesco Marciuliano
Non-fiction: Poetry, Humor, 111 pages
Book Count: 3

This is a collection of poems as written by kittens.  Each poem is divided by topic and there are many cute kitten pictures.  Some of the poems include; "Ode to a Lizard I didn't Know Is Also a Pet in This House," "Over Here!," "Your Legs," and "While You're Typing." In it you learn important things about cats like they do not know how to count (numbers included Q and &), and those drapes that they just destroyed were hideous and they were only trying to do you a favor by clawing them to shreds.

50 Easy Everyday Grain-free Recipes Without Almond Flour:

50 Easy Everyday Grain-free Recipes Without Almond Flour: Gluten-free Paleo Friendly By: Lori Morris and Michelle Corso
Non-Fiction: Cooking, E-book

First this book was poorly titled, not only with the long title, but with the fact that there are recipes that may contain grains, there is one with almond flour, and the main theme to all the recipes are that they are made using plantains and are gluten-free.   They may contain grains because a number of the recipes just call for gluten-free flour, which is often just made up of non-gluten grains like rice.  So it really should be called something like "50 gluten-free plantain recipes."  That being said, there are a number of recipes in this book that look good, I just wasn't expecting every single one in the book to be about plantains.

Unmuted:

Unmuted: Restoring Your Church's Voice By: Jim Wall
Non-fiction: Religion, E-book

This is a book on being a better church from one of the leaders of the Acts 2 Network, a group that works to plant new churches and grow people's faith off the ideas from the book of Acts chapter 2 in the Bible.  It uses 6 things that they see as the main points of the Acts 2 church for how to do this.  They are: be unified around a God-given vision, be empowered by the Holy Spirit, preach a relevant, simple truth, be hungry to know God, genuinely care for one another, and unselfishly care for the community around you.  He then uses examples from his life and the lives of people he knows to show how it works in real life.

Evil Librarian:

Evil Librarian By: Michelle Knudsen
Fiction: YA, Paranormal, 343 pages
Book Count: 2

First, I would suggest that everyone check this book out of your local library, just to hear what the person checking you out says about them being or not being an evil librarian.
As far as the book itself goes it is very much a young adult novel and according to the quote on the back a beloved book of Stephenie Meyer, so there's that. . .  But the story itself is interesting enough to make up for the love-sick female lead and the impossibly perfect love interest.  Cynthia's best friend Annie falls in love with the new school librarian, who Cynthia can tell there is something wrong with.  After snooping around the school, she finds out that the new librarian is a demon who is sucking the life out of the student body.  She with the help of Ryan (her crush) then try to stop the demon before opening night of the school play that they are both part of.  (As they are doing "Sweeney Todd" which all demons love, so he isn't going to kill all of the people in the school until after seeing the play.)

Dr. Mutter's Marvels:

Dr. Mutter's Marvels By: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Non-fiction: Biography, History 305 pages
Book Count: 1

This book is both a biography of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter, a history of medicine in the first half of the 1800's, and the story of how the Mutter Museum came into being.  It is rather interesting and includes the story of early plastic surgery, the start of using ether in surgery, early ideas on germ theory and how the Civil War effected medicine.  It also has small bits of the writings of Dr. Mutter and much on the early history of Jefferson Medical College where he was the head of surgery for over a decade.

My Daily Bread:

My Daily Bread: A Summary of The Spiritual Life Simplified and Arranged for Daily Reading, Reflection and Prayer  By: Anthony J. Paone, S.J.
Non-fiction: Religion, 437 pages

Yes, this book was one of the ones that I was hoping to finish last year.  And no I didn't not finish it in time because I miss counted the 197 chapters in it and started it too late to read a chapter a day like it was designed for.  No, I thought to myself in October, that what I needed to do right before attempting to write a novel and deal with all of the holidays was start reading a 400+ page book.