Another person chiming in to recommend anything by Becky Chambers! She is my favorite author of all time and her books are a warm light in what can be a shaky world we live in. The Monk and Robot novellas are a great place to start for a more philosophical and contemplative experience, but Wayfarers is what I read through first and they are all excellent. More of a universe building experience even though each story follows different characters (for the most part.)

Any of the discworld series.

You can never, ever go wrong with Pratchett.

The last book is pretty heavy emotionally, but it’s so fucking beautiful that you’re still uplifted rather than made sad.

If you want something that’s essentially all comedy, go with the wizard section. The first couple are a little rough because he was a new writer, but they’re just so fun

If you want something a little more focused than farcical, the Death section is superb.

Probably the best onramp to discworld is the city guard section though. Guards Guards! Is the first. If you try that and don’t like it, you probably won’t like most of the rest.

The “industry” section is pretty damn fun in its own way, but tends to be a little more linear, so some folks like it better than the guards stuff.

My personal favorite is the witches/Tiffany Aching stories. Those two arcs are linked heavily, and really lean heavily on the characters and ideas of the witches section even in the Tiffany section. Witches start out more farcical, but end up as a good comedic fantasy. The Tiffany stuff was technically written as YA oriented, and the first two show it a lot. But the rest of those turn into this character driven fantasy that’s sublime. There’s still comedy, largely from the wee free men (which is the title of the first Tiffany book), but it’s as much a coming of age story as humor. Imo, the Tiffany stuff is Pratchett’s masterwork.

I know you said you weren’t looking specifically for fantasy, but I can’t think of any other series that manages to be funny, engaging, well plotted, and carry some serious stuff along the way as well. It’s all feel good fiction. If you can read any of it and be depressed, you’re screwed because it’s just that joyful, even the ending of it all.

The Monk and Robot series. Takes place in a postindustrial eco conscious society. A young monk decides to become a traveling tea maker (an actual profession, sort of a casual therapist).

Eventually they meet a robot that wants to learn about humans.

The house in the cerulean sea

The Spellshop

The long way to a small, angry planet

They all make me feel warm and happy when everything else is too much!