"America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live" by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt; Running Press, Philadelphia; 240 pages; $40.

In September, 100 of America's finest professional photographers and thousands of amateurs spent a week shooting 250,000 digital images of life at home.

The result, "America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live," created for Against All Odds Productions, is a visual potluck of mundane and marvelous scenes:

- Lenny Weiner, a retired New York City steamfitter in his two-level apartment adorned with chandeliers, stained-glass windows, vines, murals and rhinestone-studded walls.

- Craig Cook of La Habra, Calif., who broke his neck in a car accident 11 years ago and gets help from his companion Minnie, a trained monkey supplied by Monkey Helpers for the Disabled. She responds to voice commands and brings Cook what he needs.

- Ronwyn Cooke of Kualapuu, Hawaii, who takes turns with her husband, Rick, warding off deer from their vegetable garden by sleeping in the upper bunk of the tomato house.

Erwitt and Smolan, a former photographer for Time, Life and National Geographic who created the "day in the life" books, have produced numerous other best-sellers, including "America 24/7" and "24 Hours in Cyberspace."

Cartoonist Matt Groening, in the book's introduction, said the readers will see how "diverse and different we Americans really are." But through "our weird, mysterious connections with home, we are one."

The San Diego Union-Tribune's Peggy Peattie has two photos in the book.

Colleen Dixon, a San Diego high school nurse, is shown in the kitchen with Zoey, 3, one of three disabled children she adopted. "These are children I was meant to have," said Dixon, who also has her own natural child.

But she's used to big families. She has 42 brothers and sisters, many of them adopted, mentally challenged or disabled.

The second photo depicts Anthony Robinson and Belinda Darby, homeless on the streets of San Diego. Robinson, in a sweat shirt watching a DVD, was a poor kid from South Carolina who had trouble with the law. Darby has a Ph.D. in computer science.

"They found each other on the street," Peattie wrote. "Each night Robinson sets out their blankets and erects a shaky wooden table. And while Darby sleeps, Robinson gathers partially full cans from local Dumpsters to keep them fed."

Months after the photo shoot, Peattie said she receives text messages from the couple asking if she's having a good day.

"America at Home" is available in local bookstores and can be ordered online with a custom-made dust jacket with a photo of your own. For more information, visit www.MyAmericaAtHome.com.

- Roger Showley

Visit Copley News Service at www.copleynews.com.