Sasha Alyson's personal pages

My Favorite Books

Above: The Emerald City; I leave it to you to figure out which book it's from.

I've also written a few children's books, under the penname and persona of Johnny Valentine, who, prima donna that he is, gets his own site.

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As a former publisher, this is naturally the first page I've put on my site. I hope you'll try some of these favorites of mine.

The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss. When I entered first grade, I thought reading was a bore. Not to date myself, but if you could see the reading books used in Wisconsin in the late 1950s, you'd understand why. I still remember reading The Cat in the Hat for the first time, and being turned on to reading.

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer. Like the Cat in the Hat, these characters get into trouble. But this time, there's no Thing 1 and Thing 2 around to bail them out. Krakauer tells a gripping adventure story. But he goes beyond that, with a look at some tough questions about what it means to sell adventure - questions I also faced, albeit on a different level, as the founder of a gay adventure-travel company. I love rock climbing. But I didn't want to climb Everest before I read this book and I still don't.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. More people getting in trouble! Did Dr. Seuss twist my psyche, or was it already bent? Shackleton's survival, with his entire crew, has been called the greatest adventure story of all time, and that's no hyperbole. And this one has a happy ending.

Recipes 1-2-3, by Rozanne Gold. Mix together sauerkraut, brown sugar, and crushed tomatoes and what do you get? Well, I would have thought so too. But in fact, you get quite a delicious soup. Roxanne Gold goes in some interesting and imaginative directions with these recipes, each using only 3 ingredients, and generally easy to prepare. If you ever have dinner at my place, there's a good chance you'll be eating one of them.

The Minimalist Cooks at Home, by Mark Bittman. By now you get the drift. I'm happy to ready about other people getting in trouble, but at home in the kitchen, I want to keep it safe, simple, and tasty. Having enjoyed quote a few of Mark Bittman's recipes from the New York Times, I gave the book a try, and I'm glad I did. His simple but flavorful recipes are accompanied by some background about why they work, which makes it easy to alter and adapt them to your own tastes. It's now the first book I pull out when I'm fixing dinner.

Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond. Why did societies and cultures in different parts of the world develop so differently? Why was it that Europeans colonized, and often exterminated, the populations of many other continents, rather than vice-versa? Jared Diamond offers fascinating insights into world history and the diverse factors that shaped it.

The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker. Nearly a half-century ago, Noam Chomsky revolutionized the world of linguistics by proposing that the mind has built-in circuitry, so to speak, for acquiring language. Chomsky's theory is fascinating; Chomsky's writing style is not. Steven Pinker, himself acquiring quite a reputation in the linguistics field, explains Chomsky's theory, and much more, in this fascinating book. Did you know that "If you casually slip a new color word like 'olive' into a conversation with a three-year-old, the child will probably remember something about it five weeks later"? Pinker brings together fascinating evidence like this to speculate about how and why kids can learn both the grammar and vocabulary of a new language so effortlessly, while adults - like me - cannot.

Henry Rios novels, by Michael Nava. I'm proud to say that I published the first two of Michael Nava's series, but I'd list them here even if I hadn't. Officially, these are mysteries, and they're good mysteries. But much of their appeal is that Nava writes so well, about real, complex, likeable-but-certainly-not-perfect people, that the mystery element is just an extra. Start at the beginning if you can (The Little Death), but books of this sort often go in and out of print unpredictably. You can read and enjoy the Henry Rios books in any sequence. And if you like these, you'll like the Benjamin Justice series by John Morgan Wilson.

Harry Potter series, by JK Rowling. As a first approximation, I figure the more commercial hoopla a book gets, the less reason to read it. Here's a happy exception. No only are unknown thousands - millions? - of kids getting turned on to reading thanks to Harry Potter, they're getting a truly original, funny story. By all means, give these books to kids in your life (though first you should probably check to be sure they don't already have copies). Moreover, next time you need light reading for the plane, try Harry Potter instead of the lastest John Grisham thriller. You'll feel a whole lot better afterwards. Unlike the Henry Rios books, not a single Harry Potter book will be out of print in your lifetime or mine, so you can start at the beginning.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R. Tufte. Some title! Some book! It won't appeal to everyone, and perhaps the title successfully scares off those who shouldn't venture here. I found it fascinating. The point is, there are visual ways to present statistical information that bring it to life; there are also ways that will put the viewer to sleep. In you're in a field where this is all relevant, I'll bet you enjoy Edward Tufte's book as much as I do.

The Charioteer and The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault. These were the first two books I ever read that featured positive gay characters, people I could identify with. (Granted, identifying with Alexander the Great involves a slight leap of faith, but anything's possible when you're 20.) It's fair to say that this experience - to realize what a gap had been left by all the books I had read before - was pivotal in my life, and lead me into publishing, then to focus on books for gay teenagers when no one else was doing so, and then for kids with gay and lesbian parents. Even had they not entered my life at such a critical time, these novels and any others by Renault, who primarily wrote about life in ancient Greece, are superb for their depictions of both people and place.

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. Ken Follett is best known for his modern-day thrillers, which I find increasingly formulaic. But in The Pillars of the Earth, he combines his strong story-telling skill with his love of the Middle Ages, to make that remote era seem a bit more real. Anyone who has ever stood in awe inside one of the grand European cathedrals will particularly enjoy his insights into the development and practice of this architecture.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Pop-Up Edition, by L. Frank Baum; art by Robert Sabuda. I got this for my nephew, and couldn't give it up. Remember the pop-up books of your childhood? Robert Sabuda has taken that form to new heights, with slippers that click, a twister that twists, and what is surely the pop-up world's first hot-air balloon. (Like I said, he's taken it to new heights.) Avoid my dilemma: If you're buying a copy as a gift, get an extra one for yourself.