Minnesota native Lizz Winstead has never been known as a shrinking violet. As the co-creator of "The Daily Show" and one of the comedy circuit's most articulate feminists, she rarely pulls her punches. That's why "Lizz Free or Die," a soft-peddled collection of her personal essays, is such a shock. This book doesn't go for the jugular; it's more like a gentle tap on the cheek.

Winstead has an easygoing, engaging style, whether she's writing about her attempts to become the state's first female altar boy, or how she helped discover Rachel Maddow.

Twin Cities readers will get some bonus amusement from her homegrown tales involving dancing late into the night at First Avenue and setting up Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr at local promoter Scott Hansen's club.

But just when Winstead seems about to deliver the goods, she retreats. Why tell a story about contemplating an abortion as a teenager, and then stop before sharing how her decision made her feel? Why hint that Hansen can be difficult without going into details? Why suggest a love affair with "Daily Show" correspondent Brian Unger and then leave the actual depth of their relationship to the imagination?

Most frustrating is how Winstead stops short in her chapter on "The Daily Show." It's well documented that she and then-host Craig Kilborn butted heads to the degree that he got a suspension and she walked away. But in the book, her only mentions of Kilborn would lead the uneducated reader to believe they were best buds.

The only chapter dripping with venom is the one in which she goes after tawdry reality TV, the easiest target in the land.

Star Tribune, Star Tribune
"Lizz Free or Die," by Lizz Winstead

Winstead proves that she's got a writer's touch. I just wish she would have applied it with claws.