Creative Currents

Thomas Describes 'Heart of a Husky'

Following the disappointment of losing during her junior year in the regional of the 2006-2007 NCAA women’s basketball championships, Husky co-captain Mel Thomas ’08 (BUS) hoped to write a storybook ending to her college career by winning a national championship in her senior year. Without telling anyone, she decided to keep a journal during her final season at UConn.

“I always had in the back of my mind to do a book,” says Thomas, who would suffer a season-ending knee injury. “When I got hurt, I decided to pursue it a bit more.”

Thomas’ book, Heart of a Husky (Keen Custom Media), covers her lifelong passion for basketball from her days as a youngster, success as a high school player, recruitment to UConn and her years as a Husky. In a breezy narrative laced with humor that covers the 2007-2008 season, Thomas offers insights into the close bond that develops among members of the women’s basketball team as well as the lessons student-athletes learn during their time with Hall of Fame Coach Geno Auriemma, who wrote the foreword to the book.

Now playing as a professional in Ireland, Thomas says it was difficult to write almost every day with all of the demands she faced as a student-athlete on a nationally ranked and highly visible team.

“The fact that we’re so busy all the time keeps you focused and motivated to get everything done. It was hard on top of doing homework, reading, practices and going to class,” she says. “But it was nice sometimes to find time to vent to the paper and get all of my emotions out. It kind of was like self-therapy.”

Thomas’ book brings to life the trials and tribulations faced by her team during a challenging season led by a head coach known to pull no punches in talking about where his players need improvement.

“Coach Auriemma tells you the way it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He never promised me anything when I was being recruited. He’s really blunt with all of his players,” she says. “We’re like a family. We disagree sometimes. We also have a lot of fun. That’s why we all have such a great and open relationship with him.”

 

College Girl
Patricia (Brown) Weitz ’95 (CLAS)
(Riverhead Books)

When Natalie Bloom transfers to the University of Connecticut from a community college, she thinks she has arrived. However she is ashamed of her working-class background and intimidated by her new classmates. Worse still, she has practically no experience with sex – a fact that only increases her insecurities and social withdrawal. That is, until she meets Patrick, a handsome, confident senior, her fantasy of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming – and everything changes. In her debut novel, Weitz offers an insightful, keenly observed portrait of campus life and the many pressures – economic, academic, social – that are funneled into its culture.

 

 

 

Happenstance Found
P. W. Catanese ’83 (CLAS)
(Simon & Schuster)

In the first of the planned Books of Umber trilogy, 12-year-old Happenstance awakens in a cave with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Soon a mysterious trio arrives to take him away: the explorer, Lord Umber; the shy, one-handed archer, Sophie; and Oates, whose brute strength is matched by his cursed honesty. Desperate for clues in his unfamiliar surroundings, Hap accompanies the extraordinary Umber on dangerous and unusual missions. Catanese packs a great deal into his sixth fantasy novel – rich characterizations, surprising twists and man-eating worms – as he chronicles one young boy’s quest for answers.

 

 

 

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point’s Class of 2002
Bill Murphy Jr. ’97 J.D.
(Henry Holt and Company)

Drawing on more than 200 interviews with the officers, families and colleagues of the West Point class whose future changed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Murphy’s experiences as an embedded reporter with the military in Iraq provide moving accounts of young men and women learning to carry a tremendous amount of responsibility. In this vivid and sometimes heartbreaking book, Murphy tells a powerful story about courage, honor and what war really means to the soldiers whose lives it defines.

— Craig Burdick ’96 (CLAS), ’01 (ENG)