Alicia

"Hope," by Glen Duncan. Riverhead. 336 pages. $23.95.At every point when you're ready to tell the protagonist of this engaging first novel to get over his obsession with his failures and get on with his life, he manages to hook you with another pithy observation, another facile turn of phrase, another searing insight into the dark places in our souls where, if allowed to, the seeds planted by falsehoods and failures will grow big enough to sabotage our dearest dreams.Gabriel Jones is approaching 30 and living in London, with little to show for himself.

On December 17, 2008, devoted son of Judy and Rich Peterson, Carl and Joan Majeczky; beloved brother of Tracy Roche and her husband David, loving uncle of Alicia and Jett, stepbrother of Matt David,Todd, Susie and Lisa. Nephew of many. Relatives and friends are invited to attend a memorial service celebrating Mike's life at 3:00PM, Sunday, January 11, 2009 at St. Andrews by the Bay Roman Catholic Church, 701 College Parkway, Annapolis, MD 21409. In lieu of flowers the family requests a contribution to a charity of your

Alicia Rabins and Julia Grossman remember being best friends in fifth grade at Hampton Elementary School. Then they went to different schools, made new friends, developed different interests and saw each other only in passing.Their separate accomplishments over the past seven years, however, have brought them back together. Alicia and Julia are 1994 United States Presidential Scholars. Two of only four in Maryland. Two of only 141 in the country. These two, who live only miles apart in Towson.

The Way Home, by Robert Earle. DayBue Publishing. 367 pages. $24. Near the close of this impressive debut novel, the headmaster at a Quaker prep school apologizes at Sunday Meeting for not supporting a student in a moral crisis that has unfolded in plain view. Appalled by his own obliviousness, the headmaster concludes that "society neither knew how to help the old nor hold onto the young. We, 'the ones in charge,' were the soft center between two very hard edges of existence." Unbeknownst to him, the headmaster is speaking for many.

SUN SCORE **1/2 In a half-dozen movies starting with Labyrinth of Passions in 1982 and peaking with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 1988, the Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodovar has specialized in earthy, sophisticated farces that dared audiences to laugh at extreme erotic exploits and heartbreak. In Talk to Her, his biggest critical hit yet, he prods audiences to cry at what should be the stuff of black comedy: Two men's obsessions with a couple of comatose ladies. "I'm not a `gay director,'" Almodovar once said.

Previously on "Survivor:" everything that happened this season. In hindsight, I bet the men sure are regretting that time they volunteered to go to Tribal Council and voted out Bill. And I wonder how the game would have played out if karma hadn't stepped in and taken Colton down. Jeff then runs down each of the remaining contestants. To summarize: Sabrina and Kim are awesome; no one knows why Christina never got voted off; Chelsea is also awesome, plus the guys love her; and Alicia survived despite everyone's expectations (including my own)

At camp the morning after Tribal Council, Jay announces that he dreamt he was shot. Feeling a little worried? Tarzan and Troyzan are talking, and Troy has certainly bought what Kim was selling him, hook, line, and sinker, because he's glad that Mike is gone since Mike was trying to get rid of Troy (even though he wasn't, even a little bit.) I don't think the men have realized that they're screwed yet; we'll see if this episode is the one where they wake up. Treemail, and it's a good thing that the whole tribe went, since there was a bunch of stuff to bring back.

It's more than a quarter of the way through Alicia Lee's junior year in high school, and she's trying to stay focused. Her dream of becoming a teacher is riding as much on controlling her fears as on her ability to conquer a heavy course load of physics, biology and accounting. Because of a string of violent incidents at Baltimore City public schools since the beginning of this academic year - shootings, fires in classrooms, fights broken up by school officers firing pepper spray into combatants' faces - students such as Alicia worry that they might find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Probably the most important thing to know about "Partners" is that it's created by two of the producers of "Friends."I tell you that because I don't much like the pilot, which premieres at 9 tonight after "Melrose Place" on WBFF (Channel 45). But television is a producer's medium, and Jeff Strauss and Jeff Greenstein, the executive producers of "Partners," are supposed to be very good.So, don't let me steer you off the sitcom altogether. And don't base your final decision on whether or not to make it part of your Monday viewing ritual based on the pilot alone.

Slam By Nick Hornby Putnam / 310 pages / $19.99 The British author Nick Hornby has made a booming career out of masculinity and its discontents. He writes smart, witty novels that make ideal fodder for box-office smashes. His essential talent is the ability to write about guy stuff - sports, music geekdom, the pursuit of women - without making anyone feel like a sucker in the process. That streak, I'm afraid, has come to an end. Slam, his new young-adult novel, is told by a 16-year-old kid named Sam, who knocks up his then-girlfriend Alicia and becomes a dad. There are a few sublime moments in the book, where Hornby nails the fumbling anguish of his hero.