224 pages Hay House Publication Date: August 2005 Hardcover ISBN: 1401907520

In Real Life is a collection of true, insightful accounts about work, family relations, friendship, tough challenges, and the amazing daily dramas that life throws our way. These pages are packed with funny, sharp, warm, bittersweet, memorable, heroic, painful, and inspiring moments.

In vivid little vignettes, ordinary Americans talk about the things that matter most—our homes, our dearest principles, our vocations, the love of those around us, and our faith.

Compared to the Americans inhabiting TV-land and Manhattan novels, the men and women you’re about to meet have carved out existences (often against the odds) that are bright with meaning. Among these teachers, farmers, businessmen, writers, cops, doctors, soldiers, and mothers—most with deep roots in the "fly-over" territories of our heartland—there is less cultural rot, a strong attachment to tradition, a deep reliance on God, an overriding preference for family, and abundant good sense and good cheer.

Karl Zinsmeister was the editor in chief of The American Enterprise, a national magazine covering politics, business, and culture.