The Agatha Raisin series usually has a murder but it's more of a cozy series. There are 30+ books. It's not gossipy, but I do find it entertaining and doesn't require deep thinking.

The Unhoneymooners

Very Sincerely Yours

Golden Girl and The Identicals (and also Five Star Weekend although I didn't love that one)

Little Earthquakes, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, The Summer Place, and That Summer (personally I did not like Big Summer)

They're Going to Love You

Nora Goes Off Script

Romantic Comedy

Every Summer After (this is a trilogy I think but I've only listened to the first one)

The Secret Bridesmaid

The Restoration of Celia Fairchild

When We Believed in Mermaids

When Life Gives You Lululemons (I hated Where the Grass is Green and the Girls Are Pretty)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Emily Henry books are similar to Pineapple Street. I liked Happy Place and Funny Story.

I was just going to say that!

Another similar author is Abby Jimenez. Her books take place in MN and she has two that are sort of a series but the main characters are different (one is about one best friend - Part of Your World, the second is about the other - Yours Truly). I've also read Just for the Summer by her.

^^^^

PP here - sorry, I should have said I listened to Just For the Summer and would recommend as an audiobook. Part of Your World has a narrator I can't stand (I think she's painfully boring and end up hating almost everything she reads because of it so now I avoid her), so I read that one and I also read Yours Truly because it was $0 on my Kindle Unlimited but that narrator is good.

Anonymous wrote:Emily Henry books are similar to Pineapple Street. I liked Happy Place and Funny Story.

I was just going to say that!

Another similar author is Abby Jimenez. Her books take place in MN and she has two that are sort of a series but the main characters are different (one is about one best friend - Part of Your World, the second is about the other - Yours Truly). I've also read Just for the Summer by her.

The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo is kind of gossipy. I listened and thought it was fun.

Emily Henry books are similar to Pineapple Street. I liked Happy Place and Funny Story.

Oh gosh, I feel like I have listened to a lot of "gossipy" books over the last year or so.
Here are some:
Crazy rich Asians (woman finds out her boyfriend of 2 years is rich. People in his hometown assume she is a gold digger)
Valentine (14 year old Mexican girl is raped in Texas, people gossip about whether she 'deserved' it)
Sweeney sisters (3 sisters find out after their dad dies that there is a 4th sister)
The idea of you (40 year old woman has affair with 20 year old young man)
When life gives you lululemons (woman is done dirty by her senator husband)
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty (woman is a morning news anchor on national TV when it comes out that she made a "very generous" donation to the college her daughter was supposed to start attending in the fall).

I love listening to light gossipy books while on my walk, doing chores, commuting, etc. Books like Pineapple Street, The Latecomers, I Have Questions for You, Bad Summer People.

What else can you recommend?