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Winter's Song: A Hymn to the North
Winter's Song celebrates the intimate and intense relationship Americans living in the northern Midwest have with winter. The season is often viewed as an inhospitable time of year, accompanied by yearnings to fly south, yet Mischke invites us to view winter through the rich and varied lives of the hearty Northerners who have come to accept the season's extraordinary presentation-its hard lessons and hidden treasures.
While the other seasons have their place among these pages, winter takes center stage and is depicted as an otherworldly yet familiar Nordic realm, one that has profoundly influenced and shaped the people of the north. From amusing stories of winter driving, idiosyncratic fashions, and the inspiring experiences of children, to the effect winter has on spirituality, the health benefits of the cold, and the outsized role of the meteorologist, Winter's Song paints the season with whimsical humor, breathtaking beauty, ancient lore, and cultural touchstones.
But Mischke does more than tie winter to the denizens of the north. He holds a frosty mirror up to life itself and examines what it means to be human through the clarity and contrast winter provides. This exploration reveals the deeper meaning to be found in the fluttering snow, the sparkles cast from icicles, and the twinkling darkness overhead at night. Winter's Song isn't just a hymn. It's an ode that elevates the season to a living, breathing presence and passes its rich rewards to those who embrace it.
While the other seasons have their place among these pages, winter takes center stage and is depicted as an otherworldly yet familiar Nordic realm, one that has profoundly influenced and shaped the people of the north. From amusing stories of winter driving, idiosyncratic fashions, and the inspiring experiences of children, to the effect winter has on spirituality, the health benefits of the cold, and the outsized role of the meteorologist, Winter's Song paints the season with whimsical humor, breathtaking beauty, ancient lore, and cultural touchstones.
But Mischke does more than tie winter to the denizens of the north. He holds a frosty mirror up to life itself and examines what it means to be human through the clarity and contrast winter provides. This exploration reveals the deeper meaning to be found in the fluttering snow, the sparkles cast from icicles, and the twinkling darkness overhead at night. Winter's Song isn't just a hymn. It's an ode that elevates the season to a living, breathing presence and passes its rich rewards to those who embrace it.
- GenresNonfiction
186 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2023
28 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 7, 2023
I borrowed this book from the Red Wing Library.
I heard the author, TD Mischke, speaking on the local MPR station one morning, and I knew I needed to read his new book. I was delighted when my local library got it in. Winter's Song is a meditation on winter in what Mischke terms 'the Northlands': Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and eastern Montana. Each chapter is short, a couple pages, creating nibbles of content that are akin to brief meditations. Really, meditation is one of the best words for this book. Each chapter, whether focusing on beauty or terror or an obsession with jackets, regards the north's cold with reverence. You can never forget that it'll kill you, but there is joy to be found in the experience, if you seek it out--whether it's by skating on a frozen pond in the middle of the night or taking in the particular sound of a snow shovel penetrating the icy layers to find asphalt below.
Many of the chapters are eloquent essays by Mischke, but there are a few guest pieces, including an enlightening one by a meteorologist. There are also a few winter-themes short stories and poems.
As a newcomer to the Upper Midwest, starting to experience winter as I never have before (in the past week, I've driven in snow twice! My first time driving in snow!), I really appreciated Mischke's perspective. His love of place reminded me of how Mas Masumoto writes of my home region, California's San Joaquin Valley. I only home that I can retain a similarly positive view of winter by the time March arrives.
I heard the author, TD Mischke, speaking on the local MPR station one morning, and I knew I needed to read his new book. I was delighted when my local library got it in. Winter's Song is a meditation on winter in what Mischke terms 'the Northlands': Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and eastern Montana. Each chapter is short, a couple pages, creating nibbles of content that are akin to brief meditations. Really, meditation is one of the best words for this book. Each chapter, whether focusing on beauty or terror or an obsession with jackets, regards the north's cold with reverence. You can never forget that it'll kill you, but there is joy to be found in the experience, if you seek it out--whether it's by skating on a frozen pond in the middle of the night or taking in the particular sound of a snow shovel penetrating the icy layers to find asphalt below.
Many of the chapters are eloquent essays by Mischke, but there are a few guest pieces, including an enlightening one by a meteorologist. There are also a few winter-themes short stories and poems.
As a newcomer to the Upper Midwest, starting to experience winter as I never have before (in the past week, I've driven in snow twice! My first time driving in snow!), I really appreciated Mischke's perspective. His love of place reminded me of how Mas Masumoto writes of my home region, California's San Joaquin Valley. I only home that I can retain a similarly positive view of winter by the time March arrives.
January 27, 2024
This was a good book to read in the middle of January… beautiful prose and hilarious commentary on what it’s like to experience winter in Minnesota. Some of the writing was cheesy and repetitive but whatever it was still an atmospheric read
November 30, 2023
I used to listen to TD Mischke way back in the 90's on his WCCO radio show on my way home from work at night, when I had a much longer drive than I do now. Sometimes it was the favorite part of my day, sitting down, relaxing in the car, listening to him and his silly stories, goofy songs and hilarious banter with callers.
I was thrilled when I heard he wrote a book, and about winter! He is from Minnesota, as am I, and I am someone who loves winter, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I feel like I was the target audience. Like I said, I love Winter. I love the cooler temps and the snow. It's such a beautiful time of year. I walk every morning with the dog, yes, even in the winter. I strap my spikes on my books, bundle up and head out. My favorite thing to do is go out at night, after a fresh snowstorm, when there is a hush across the land with the new snow. Everything is pure and peaceful, untouched. I'm the first tracks in the snow, and it feels like I'm the only person in the world. The beauty is everywhere you look. Especially the kind of snow that sticks to all the branches, and everything looks like a fairy tale.
This book talks all about winter and how we all deal with it, the good and the bad. I found myself nodding and smiling so much in this book, because for me it's so relatable, all the things that you go through living here with the harsh, cruel, but gorgeous Winters. I love his sense of humor and story telling and way with words. Besides his observations and experiences, he includes some poetry, and short stories, which were funny and some touching. Also, some solid advice about what to do if you fall through the ice. Which I've had happen to me (ok, so maybe it was only to my knees in Minnehaha Creek, but still- it was 20 below zero!!). You don't have to love Winter to enjoy this book (but you might enjoy it MORE if you) or live here too find it interesting. TD is amazing in so many ways, now he can add this to his list.
I was thrilled when I heard he wrote a book, and about winter! He is from Minnesota, as am I, and I am someone who loves winter, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I feel like I was the target audience. Like I said, I love Winter. I love the cooler temps and the snow. It's such a beautiful time of year. I walk every morning with the dog, yes, even in the winter. I strap my spikes on my books, bundle up and head out. My favorite thing to do is go out at night, after a fresh snowstorm, when there is a hush across the land with the new snow. Everything is pure and peaceful, untouched. I'm the first tracks in the snow, and it feels like I'm the only person in the world. The beauty is everywhere you look. Especially the kind of snow that sticks to all the branches, and everything looks like a fairy tale.
This book talks all about winter and how we all deal with it, the good and the bad. I found myself nodding and smiling so much in this book, because for me it's so relatable, all the things that you go through living here with the harsh, cruel, but gorgeous Winters. I love his sense of humor and story telling and way with words. Besides his observations and experiences, he includes some poetry, and short stories, which were funny and some touching. Also, some solid advice about what to do if you fall through the ice. Which I've had happen to me (ok, so maybe it was only to my knees in Minnehaha Creek, but still- it was 20 below zero!!). You don't have to love Winter to enjoy this book (but you might enjoy it MORE if you) or live here too find it interesting. TD is amazing in so many ways, now he can add this to his list.
November 14, 2023
Anyone who lives as a Northlander needs to read this - you will shake your head yes I have experienced that and that. Validates my love of the seasons and why we live in MN. Beautifully written.
December 31, 2023
There is a specific type of person that this book is made for and that person is me. We are the Northlanders that eagerly anticipate the coming of winter and are saddened by the transition into spring. Reading this book in a year when snow is lacking and December temperatures feel more like October makes it even more wistful and poignant. This will be one to revisit often.
May 26, 2024
On an unseasonably warm day in January:
"Of course...there were those who honestly lamented this disconcerting warmth. The cold was preferable. It's where they were happiest. These are the true followers of Boreas, the certified winter people, and they are a breed unto themselves."
That explains why I reveled in this book -- I am one of the certified winter people.
"Of course...there were those who honestly lamented this disconcerting warmth. The cold was preferable. It's where they were happiest. These are the true followers of Boreas, the certified winter people, and they are a breed unto themselves."
That explains why I reveled in this book -- I am one of the certified winter people.
October 21, 2023
Required Northland Reading
I imagine myself describing a northern winter to a southern friend - the words I would use and the stories I would include - and I expect I’d just focus on the cold. Maybe I’d tell them about the time I laid in a road during the ‘91 blizzard and watched a cop drive by with better things to worry about. Now, it’s easier to imagine describing someone I know and care about, devoting chapter upon chapter to each intricacy of their complex personality. And that’s what Mischke has done for winter.
Winter in the North has a power the other seasons don’t possess, bringing with it an artful and contemplative stillness along with that whistling, unrelenting cold. It has people huddling together to avoid its punishments at the same time that it draws them out to celebrate its unique offerings.
I can’t speak for how someone from a warmer climate might receive Mischke’s book - maybe the same way a guy from San Antonio might react to his first snowfall. But as a child pulled laughing from a snow fort womb, each chapter felt like a backwards glance at an important emotion I’d experienced before - like someone reminding me of things I’d forgotten because they had become too familiar.
There’s a profound weight to the work from start to finish, whether Mischke is sharing the tales of others or crafting his own. But the book shines the most when he’s doing his own crafting. The prose is elegant, and the storytelling humorous, beautiful and sometimes haunting. The reader is even invited to reflect on death and spirituality in the context of a season that forces the issue, acting as a metaphor for the cycle of contrasts inherent in existence.
I dare say Winter’s Song could be deemed required Northland reading. But, at the least, it is a hymn worthy of being sung in frigid ice skating rinks and inside the warmth of glowing cabins. Its solemn and celebratory refrains remind the ice-born that “cold changes everything.”
I imagine myself describing a northern winter to a southern friend - the words I would use and the stories I would include - and I expect I’d just focus on the cold. Maybe I’d tell them about the time I laid in a road during the ‘91 blizzard and watched a cop drive by with better things to worry about. Now, it’s easier to imagine describing someone I know and care about, devoting chapter upon chapter to each intricacy of their complex personality. And that’s what Mischke has done for winter.
Winter in the North has a power the other seasons don’t possess, bringing with it an artful and contemplative stillness along with that whistling, unrelenting cold. It has people huddling together to avoid its punishments at the same time that it draws them out to celebrate its unique offerings.
I can’t speak for how someone from a warmer climate might receive Mischke’s book - maybe the same way a guy from San Antonio might react to his first snowfall. But as a child pulled laughing from a snow fort womb, each chapter felt like a backwards glance at an important emotion I’d experienced before - like someone reminding me of things I’d forgotten because they had become too familiar.
There’s a profound weight to the work from start to finish, whether Mischke is sharing the tales of others or crafting his own. But the book shines the most when he’s doing his own crafting. The prose is elegant, and the storytelling humorous, beautiful and sometimes haunting. The reader is even invited to reflect on death and spirituality in the context of a season that forces the issue, acting as a metaphor for the cycle of contrasts inherent in existence.
I dare say Winter’s Song could be deemed required Northland reading. But, at the least, it is a hymn worthy of being sung in frigid ice skating rinks and inside the warmth of glowing cabins. Its solemn and celebratory refrains remind the ice-born that “cold changes everything.”
November 14, 2023
Winter's Song is beautifully presented, thought provoking and it should be treasured. It will definitely find a place on my bookshelf.
Winter's Song offers to take the reader into the northern areas of the Midwest and introduces them to people who have a love affair with winter. It's not the mediocre climates of winter that other parts of the United States experience, but the harsh and unforgiving brutality that mother nature bestows to Northerners, giving them an opportunity to learn from and to appreciate the adversity of a most challenging season. Often times, winter is described as otherworldly by the people of the northern regions, but it has been said that this season of snow, cold and bone chilling winds has also influenced and largely shaped them into the people they are. A nod to spring, summer and autumn; also welcomed when they take their turn on the stage, but winter, one could argue, has many more dramatic and interesting stories in its wonderous archives. Mischke delivers to us stories that are rich in childhood memories, cultural references, spiritual beliefs as it all relates to winter and humor is also found within the pages of Winter's Song. He has a special knack in going deeper into what it means to be human and in our relationship to nature. He gives us winter and invites us to welcome her for all that she is. Her harshness and beauty await within Winter's Song.
Tommy Mischke is a long-time radio personality in the Twin Cities of Minnesota who now hosts a podcast, The Road Show- Life All Over the Map. I've listened to him for years and have always been impressed with his intellect, his take on life, his interactions with others and his humor. What he has offered down through the years is highly enjoyable, interesting and addictingly infectious. Winter's Song is beautifully presented, thought provoking and it should be treasured. It will definitely find a place on my bookshelf. This is a Must Read!
Winter's Song offers to take the reader into the northern areas of the Midwest and introduces them to people who have a love affair with winter. It's not the mediocre climates of winter that other parts of the United States experience, but the harsh and unforgiving brutality that mother nature bestows to Northerners, giving them an opportunity to learn from and to appreciate the adversity of a most challenging season. Often times, winter is described as otherworldly by the people of the northern regions, but it has been said that this season of snow, cold and bone chilling winds has also influenced and largely shaped them into the people they are. A nod to spring, summer and autumn; also welcomed when they take their turn on the stage, but winter, one could argue, has many more dramatic and interesting stories in its wonderous archives. Mischke delivers to us stories that are rich in childhood memories, cultural references, spiritual beliefs as it all relates to winter and humor is also found within the pages of Winter's Song. He has a special knack in going deeper into what it means to be human and in our relationship to nature. He gives us winter and invites us to welcome her for all that she is. Her harshness and beauty await within Winter's Song.
Tommy Mischke is a long-time radio personality in the Twin Cities of Minnesota who now hosts a podcast, The Road Show- Life All Over the Map. I've listened to him for years and have always been impressed with his intellect, his take on life, his interactions with others and his humor. What he has offered down through the years is highly enjoyable, interesting and addictingly infectious. Winter's Song is beautifully presented, thought provoking and it should be treasured. It will definitely find a place on my bookshelf. This is a Must Read!
December 2, 2023
TD Mischke says several things that I haven’t heard anywhere else about winter. The long 90 is January, February, and March. These are the 90 days that follow the holidays that are the hardest to get through. I don’t know why this is comforting, but it is and it’s true. I find winter weather very comforting and yes I don’t like driving in it. That’s what everyone says. But I look forward to the first snowfall. And I love when it’s snowing and cold. But what I love about winter is the coziness of it. I love reading in front of a fire. I love snuggling and the darkness. I am glad when I can call it a day at 5:30 and have a glass of wine. I don’t have to be active outside to love winter. I’ve always felt guilty about that. But the author tells me that most people that say they love winter or enjoy winter are the ones like me who enjoy being cozy and indoors and feeling that comfort. They embrace the Danish Hygge customs. These are all things that come up in this book and I kept saying yes that’s true. Yes, that’s true. I haven’t seen them written down anywhere, and I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life. So the author really gets it right and I feel comforted reading this book.
November 25, 2023
This was a great book to read in November for someone who lives in Minnesota. The whole premise of this book is to embrace winter. The discussion of snow and ice, fishing and snowshoeing, and all the things that can only be done in the winter make you want to get out and do stuff! as we are preparing for winter here this was a good book for me to read so that I could embrace it rather than fear it
December 28, 2025
There’s nothing like reading a short nostalgic book about winter weather while you’re sitting in Minnesota experiencing a small winter storm. In near blizzard conditions over the holidays I enjoyed the book of this talented talk-show podcaster musician. He’s very talented, I listen to his podcasts and radio shows - Tom Mischke. I find that his writing style is similarly clever, witty and philosophical. Most of all he’s nostalgic. Refreshingly so. I recommend this book.
December 31, 2024
I have so many memories of hearing T.D. Mischke on the radio in my parents cars growing up and because of that, this book elicited a lot of nostalgia— which I’m a total sucker for. I love being from the North (as he calls the group of northern states) but sometimes these winters get so hard. This book is good reminder of the beauty and many lessons in this season ❄️
October 28, 2023
5 stars because TD Mischke is worth a bonus star. Is it a 5 ⭐ book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Would it have been better in TDs spoken voice or as a series of podcast episodes? Maybe, but I'm putting 5 stars here and I stand by that rating.
December 26, 2023
If you love winter and are surrounded by people who think you’re strange because you think snow is magical, this book will leave you feeling vindicated and excited for the next winter storm.
I loved this book so much I keep it out on the coffee table and gave it as a Christmas gift this year.
I loved this book so much I keep it out on the coffee table and gave it as a Christmas gift this year.
June 27, 2025
Made me feel good about being a Minnesotan. It has some poignant and funny stories, each chapter a new story, or a new poem. I especially liked the story about the man who would go out on the ice and sit, not to ice fish, but just to look.
December 8, 2023
Hell yes this was stupid up my alley. Check my review for Racket titled “TD Mischke’s new book will gas you up for Minnesota winter” for more thoughts.
September 16, 2024
Very enjoyable book! The author is a Northerner through and through (like me), and it was so much fun to relate to all things about growing up in the land of snow and cold!
October 17, 2023
An Homage to Winter
Finally, someone who writes about winter, giving the season the reverence it deserves. Winter’s Song provides both a humorous and spiritual perspective of that coldest time of year. Often I thought I was the only one crazed enough to look forward to those bone chilling months, but Mischke include stories from people he’s interviewed about their unique experiences and memories of wintry times and appreciation of what the season has to offer.
Winter’s Song is a book I plan to keep handy for times I need inspiration to get out and enjoy the snow.
Finally, someone who writes about winter, giving the season the reverence it deserves. Winter’s Song provides both a humorous and spiritual perspective of that coldest time of year. Often I thought I was the only one crazed enough to look forward to those bone chilling months, but Mischke include stories from people he’s interviewed about their unique experiences and memories of wintry times and appreciation of what the season has to offer.
Winter’s Song is a book I plan to keep handy for times I need inspiration to get out and enjoy the snow.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews