Movies: The Namesake, Zodiac

This coming Friday, March 9, the movie based on Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake opens. With the tagline, "two worlds, one journey," the movie is directed by Mira Nair and stars Tabu, Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Zuleikha Robinson, Jacinda Barrett and Sahira Nair. Lahiri herself appears as Aunt Jhumpa.

The movie tie-in edition of the book is published by Mariner ($14, 9780618733965/0618733965). Newmarket has a book about the movie, The Namesake: A Portrait of the Film Based on the Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ($30, 9781557047410/1557047413), featuring essays by Lahiri and director Nair, excerpts from the book and a range of photographs.

The Namesake is getting attention at Costco, too. Book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello has chosen the title for her March book pick, writing, "The novel tells the story of a tradition-bound family that moves from India to Massachusetts. While the husband adapts, the wife resists. And their American-born son bears the burden of his heritage--and an unusual name [Gogol]."

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Zodiac, the movie about the Bay Area serial killer of the same name, opened this past weekend to some solid reviews and box office. Directed by David Fincher and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., the film is based on two books by Robert Graysmith: the tie-in editions are Zodiac (Penguin, $7.99, 9780425212189/0425212181) and Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killers Revealed (Penguin, $7.99, 9780425212738/0425212734).

Graysmith is a San Francisco Chronicle reporter obsessed by the case--between 1966 and 1978, the Zodiac Killer murdered at least six people and claimed many more. He was never caught.