@FallGirl --I read all three. I can’t imagine not reading in order, as the march forward in time is so central to them. I liked the whole trilogy, but like you said, spent a lot of time flipping back and forth to keep the genealogy straight.
@Consolation --I recommend Love Medicine. Her first, I think, but some of the linked stories in it, especially Scales and The Red Convertible, have stayed with me for decades.
I agree with garland that Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich is fantastic. That and The Round House are her two books I liked best.
The CC book club discussed The Round House in October 2014. You can check out the discussion here:
I’ve read a number of Jane Smiley’s books–Moo (eh), A Thousand Acres (vg), Horse Heaven (enjoyable), Lidie Newton (I had to stop reading because I was so upset but I must go back to it), Barn Blind (enjoyable, I’m a sucker for horse stories)-- but this is an excellent reminder that there is yet more to be read! Busy scribbling in my wonderful little Books to Read notebook. 
Does anyone have an opinion of Ten Days in the Hills?
I’m wondering if anyone else read the Beulah Quintet of Mary Lee Settle in days of yore? She and Jane Smiley have a certain something in common. Settle was a superb writer. I’m actually astounded that no one ever mentions her these days, despite the fact that she did win the National Book Award. (Of course, she was–gasp–a woman. And she did write what one might call historical fiction. A combination likely to consign many a writer to the trash heap.) If you have not, I strongly urge you to read it, starting with Prisons.
Here is her obit in the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/books/mary-lee-settle-87-author-of-beulah-novels-is-dead.html?_r=0
I read those books 30+ years ago, and they still haunt me.
Consolation, Moo is probably my favorite Jane Smiley (but working my whole life in academia, I’m a sucker for satire about it.) I could not get into Ten Days in the Hills, one of the few I haven’t finished. I think I read Lidie Newton, but I’m blanking on it now. A Thousand Acres is extremely good, my other possible favorite. Greenlanders was too bleak. I think I thought Barn Blind was okay; don’t remember too much about it. And she had that Real Estate one (title?), also pretty good, as I recall.
I’ve never read Mary Lee Settle. I should look into her works, thanks.
Took a quick break from my beloved Gamache to listen on CD to Savage Girl by Jean Zimmerman. It wasn’t my favorite, but some of you guys and gals might really like it. It has a lot of imagery about 1875 American West history compiled with the Manhattan rich and famous. A little mystery, a little love and romance. It was very well written, but I am more of an action/adventure reader.
Now I am half way through John Grisham’s Rogue Lawyer. I like it so far on CD because the gentleman who narrates it really pulls off the snarkiness of the main character. Grisham spends a lot of time revealing the “failures” of the legal system and police force in this book, so be prepared for that if you read it.
Then it is back to Gamache! I have The Long Way Home and The Nature of the Beast on CDs that I cannot wait to listen to (though I am going to be sad when the voice changes due to the reader passing away. He really does make Gamache come alive.)
Finished My Brilliant Friend last night and really enjoyed it. I was not enthralled from the beginning but the book only got better as I read. I also read a little of the second book because the first ends with a cliffhanger. So glad I didn’t have to wait for the second one.
I adore Louise Penny’s Gamache series and I want to live in Three Pines.
I am looking for some new guilty pleasure mystery/thriller writers. Have read most of the big authors(Ludlum, Sanford, Patterson, Baldacci, Child, Kellerman, Clancy, Flynn, Connelly, Hoag, Reich,etc) so I am on the hunt for something new to me. I recently finished S.J.Bolton series. Anyone have a favorite author or book?
@NorthMinnesota - have you read Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series? It’s pretty good, in general.
What about Linwood Barclay? Or Laura Lippman? She writes a series (about a female PI in Baltimore - Tess Monaghan) but also stand-alone mysteries. Her book “After I’m Gone” was excellent.
Ben Winters wrote a three-book series (starting with “The Last Policeman”) about a police detective solving mysteries at the end of the world (a comet is about to collide with the earth.) It’s part mystery, part how-the-world-functions-when-it’s-disintegrating science fiction. “The Last Policeman” won an Edgar in 2013, and I’m still thinking about the last book in the trilogy, “World of Trouble.”
NoMN, I’m catching up on James Grippando. His books are definitely your (and my) preferred genre, definitely worth a try.
@NorthMinnesota I recommend Linwood Barclay, another Canadian author. I have enjoyed almost all of his books and my favourites are Trust Your Eyes and Never Look Away. He is currently in the midst of a trilogy, the first out last fall with the next release to be in March. His books are different than Louise Penny’s but no less enjoyable. He and his wife happen to be friends of mine. He is a nice guy and deserves every bit of his ‘overnight’ success.
“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, about his work with prisoners on death row and people “sentenced to die in prison.”
Moby Dick. About to finish today
@NorthMinnesota I also recommend Robert Crais. I have enjoyed all of his books and have anxiously awaited the release of each. I also enjoy Carl Hiaasen - particularly his sense of humor.
Thanks!!! I stored your suggestions in my phone and I am off to the Library and Half price Books! I usually buy on my Kindle but H is trying to guide me to set a less expensive book budget now that retirement could be imminent. This will be very difficult for me! I love my Kindle and immediate access to books. sigh…
You are a lucky duck if your user name is accurate. Your MN library has MNLINK, and you can freely borrow books from pretty much any library in the state. You can search online from home (just log into your library website), and get notified when it is ready for pickup at your library. I just moved to another state that does not have this luxury, and I am bummed. 
Some of my favorites from an on-going list/tracker
Peter May - Outer Hebrides of Scotland (don’t really care for the Enzo series)
Donna Leon - Venice
Cara Black - Paris
Ann Cleeves - Shetland Island or Vera Stanhope series
Helene Tursten - Sweden. It took a bit to get into this series, but once I did, read them all
Ingrid Thoft - newer author, enjoyable
Lisa Lutz - Spellman series. Fun reads
Denise Mina - Scotland
Val McDermid - prolific author with a couple of series - Scotland
Lynda LaPlante - known mostly for Prime Suspect, enjoy Anna Travis books
intparent…User name does identify my location. 
I have just started back to using the library so I haven’t tried MNLINK but I do know about it. I also want to try using the 3M library that several friends rave about. H will be thrilled at how much I am saving!
Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series: Atkinson is now better known for her literary fiction (Life After Life, A God in Ruins) but she’s an ace plotter and this series is delicious. Starts with “Case Histories”.
If you don’t mind creepy, sometimes quite creepy, but interesting leads-- Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery/Flea Marley series. Good mysteries along with a continued mysteries about both leads’ lives. So good.
Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro mysteries (the inspiration for the movie “Gone Baby Gone”) before he wrote “Mystic River”.
Ruth Rendell’s books. I’m so sad she died last year; I just read her final book.