Peep Diaries; After Etan

"The Peep Diaries" by Hal Niedzviecki (whew, what a last name!) has been getting some buzz in the community lately due to the timeliness of the topic: how social networking has changing our perceptions of privacy and how we interact with others online. I thought it was quite interesting and I enjoyed it, and Hal's style was easy to read. He made a lot of good points on why he thinks we are so eager to post online all sorts of private information that would have been unthinkable in the past. It doesn't really change how I use social networking, but it did give me a better understanding of how others see it.
"After Etan" by Lisa R. Cohen looked at the kidnapping of six year old Etan Patz on May 25, 1979, from his New York neighborhood. Before Adam Walsh, there was Etan, and the two kidnappings together kind of became the catalyst for changes made in the system as to how kidnappings were handled nationally. There is no tidy resolution to Etan's case, unfortunately, a body has never been found and the main suspect, while behind bars for an unrelated crime, has never confessed, although in 2004 he was found responsible for Etan's death in a civil case. Tragic, sad stuff that makes me want to go back and reread such books as "I Know My First Name is Steven" by Mike Echols. I hope whoever was responsible for Etan's death burns in the deepest levels of Hell along with Otis Toole and Kenneth Parnell. Crimes against children are unforgivable.