Collision Detection - Brick Breaker Game

[mouse88]

I'm not sure how to go about this I already have the game running with basic collision detection which just checks if two rectangles intersect but I need it to be more precise. Here's an explanation of what I need to do:

Ball/Brick Collision
The ball is drawn using a rectangle however instead of using the rectangle I would like to be more precise and only check a collision of the actual ball.

I need to check the collision of the ball with the bricks. However I need to check if the ball collides with specific sides of the brick so I know which way to bounce it off and to change the velocities.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I have added the images in case it helps.