Welcome to The Best of Book Riot. Here’s your weekend highlight reel of the week’s most popular stories.
The Guardian’s 100 Best Novels of All Time
The Guardian has been rolling out its picks for the 100 best novels of all time, and now you can check out the full list. They polled 172 authors and experts on their top ten nominations and then combined them. Don’t take away my reader card, but I’ve only read 18 of the books on this list… and only one of them would be in my personal top ten: Beloved by Toni Morrison, which took the #2 spot overall.
In its write-up of the process, The Guardian notes the increase in women writers as opposed to earlier versions: a whopping 36 of 100! I can’t say I find that too impressive, personally. They also mention some of the notable books missing, like The Lord of the Rings and To Kill a Mockingbird. There are also no children’s books and no graphic novels.
If you’d like to dig deeper, you can click “See all the votes” to see individual people’s top ten, like Roxane Gay, RF Kuang, Stephen King, and Salman Rushdie. You can also submit your own nominations for a follow-up list.
Are AI Allegations the New Normal for Literary Prizes?
Three of the five stories shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize have been accused of being AI-generated. It began with one story getting attention for having some hallmarks of AI writing, as well as being flagged as 100% AI-generated in (fallible) AI detection software. Now, two of the other shortlisted stories have also been accused of being partially AI written. Wired is framing this as a the new normal. It’s hard to know how to navigate these accusations: AI-written text is a legitimate concern, especially when cash prizes are involved—but it’s also very difficult to tell for sure if AI is involved, and I don’t want to torpedo a new writer’s career because they use em dashes or parallel sentence structure.
Meanwhile, Olga Tokarczuk has issued a statement about her use of AI. Specifically, she says, “None of my texts, including the novel that will appear in Polish this fall, has been written with the help of artificial intelligence—except for using it as a tool for faster preliminary research.” This controversy has opened up another can of worms. While many (most?) readers avoid AI-written books, what counts as AI-written? Are books edited by AI acceptable? What about when used in research? Tools like Grammarly are also AI—is that a dealbreaker for readers? I expect this conversation is about to get even messier.
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The CEO of Barnes & Noble has “No Problem” Stocking AI-Written Books
In a recent interview, James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, said he has “no problem” selling AI-written books in B&N stores:
“Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t. And that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it.
So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them.”
The general sentiment doesn’t surprise me, but I do wonder what “essential quality” all books in Barnes & Noble stores share. It’s also optimistic to imagine AI-written books are going to be clearly labelled—that’s certainly not how it’s trending so far.
While selling AI-written books could theoretically make the company money, I think it’s short-sighted: no one wants to sift through AI slop on bookstore shelves, and some—like AI-written mushroom identification guides—are dangerous. It’s likely impossible to guarantee that no book in stores has been touched by AI, but embracing AI-written books could hurt the in-store experience and the brand.
Alex Haley’s ROOTS Banned by Tennessee School District
On the opposite end of the book news spectrum, we have another story out of Tennessee. This time, involving the groundbreaking book Roots by Alex Haley. Roots follows Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped from Gambia as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The story follows six generations of Kinte’s descendants until it gets to Haley, who first learned of his ancestor while living with his maternal grandparents in Tennessee. The book was so influential and had such a cultural impact after it was released in 1976 that it inspired thousands of people to investigate their heritage, and its characters are permanent fixtures in pop culture.
Well, now, Knox County Schools (KCS) has removed the book from its libraries as part of the state’s “Age-Appropriate Materials Act,” which was first passed in 2022. The law prohibits titles from being on school shelves if they contain nudity, sexual abuse, sexual content, or excessive violence. Interestingly, KCS’s book-banning committee had previously voted not to ban the book after reviewing an excerpt. The committee has not said what new information has led to the current ban, however. Another curious point: the book can still be taught in classes; it just can not be on library shelves. It really feels like Tennessee has become the battleground for civil rights in this country.
Queer Horror Books Hitting Shelves for Pride Month 2026
Pride Month is just around the corner, so it comes as no surprise that there are so many new queer horror books dropping in June. If you’re looking for more queer horror stories to add to your TBR for Pride Month and beyond, here are four LGBTQ horror novels you have to get your hands on. And lucky you! The first book comes out right at the start of June. Join All Access to read the full post.
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