Alex McCord is an original cast member of The Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo. Little Kids, Big City (Sterling & Ross, April 2010), her first book, was co-authored with her husband, Simon van Kempen; they live in Brooklyn, N.Y., with their two sons. She is also featured in Chronicle's The Real Housewives Get Personal (June 16, 2010).
On your nightstand now:
I always have a stack going and went downstairs just now to double check for accuracy: Jack Finney's Three by Finney, The Violins of St. Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Ayun Halliday's East Village Inky and Machiavelli's The Prince.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and Julie Andrews's Mandy are the first that come to mind, although I could go on forever.
Your top five authors:
Besides Dickens and Shakespeare, of course? Tee hee. I always enjoy Tom Robbins, Caleb Carr, John Irving. Have a love/hate relationship with Bret Easton Ellis's work and I really enjoy Ayn Rand, too, though not as a "how to" manual.
Book you've faked reading:
Never faked reading a book in my life; I wouldn't want to try to get away with that. Now I will admit to faking liking a few, but only because I didn't want to be rude to the author standing in front of me!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Little Kids, Big City of course! Written by my husband, Simon van Kempen, and me.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Gotta love impulse purchases--sometimes they work out well, other times not so much. Gore Vidal's Live from Golgotha (back when it first came out, and I loved it.) The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby was fun at first, but I couldn't get through it.
Usual airport book purchases:
If I'm in the airport and need a paperback, I usually go for Patricia Cornwall or Tom Clancy.
Book that changed your life:
I don't think there's any one book that changed my life; however, I cried with relief after reading Michel Cohen's The New Basics as a first-time mom and realized I wasn't crazy.
Favorite line from a book:
"Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is--and still not caring."--Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I'm actually looking forward to reading all the Chronicles of Narnia to the boys--in fact most of what I read to them has a similarly selfish motivation. For myself, I'd like to dip back into ones I read once ages ago, like Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies.
