Good alternative to Apple-produced books?

I've been very happy with Blurb. Use their free "Booksmart" software which makes it very easy to design your own books from various presets or if you're into Adobe InDesign you can download a template file and design a book exactly the way you like. I'm not aware however of ways to create Blurb books directly from Aperture if that's what you were looking for. You have to export the photos you want to use so you have a bunch of JPG files which you drag & drop into Blurb Booksmart (or InDesign). Give it a try