A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015
Listed among the top five books of 2015 by The Hill Times
Praise for Arms and A.J. Somerset
"What makes his book entertaining, often funny and ultimately an important addition to the limited canon on guns is that Somerset is a gun guy. He owns them, shoots them and loves them. And yet he is exasperated because gun owners, along with their culture and rhetoric, have increasingly 'grown more radical,' leaving 'anyone who breaks ranks' as a 'traitor to the cause.'"—Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post
“By digging deep into history, brushing off dusty lawsuits, and pounding some pavement, Somerset manages to avoid all of the clichés about North American gun politics and overturn everything that is held to be gospel. This is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism and surprisingly entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Every political question evokes emotion, but a few [like gun control] are so bound up with visceral feelings that even close friends find it hard to disagree over them without rancor and exasperation ... [Somerset] has a fine talent for narrative writing ... Valid and thoughtful."—Wall Street Journal
"What we talk about when we talk about guns: How did they become as American as baseball and as sacred as Jesus? And is there any going back? These are among the questions explored by a onetime soldier in an unflinching journey across our cultural battlefields."—O, The Oprah Magazine
"A one-time soldier, [Somerset] paints a convincing picture ... Yet he maintains a consistent sense of humor—self-deprecating, gruff, curmudgeonly."—Globe & Mail
"[Arms is] a pleasingly acerbic popular history—an equal-opportunity lambasting of everyone from American gun weenies to Canadian cultural nationalists."—Maclean’s
"Somerset's writing is an odd but effective mix of classic argument/thesis prose and zippy school-of-New-Journalism narrative a-la Hunter S. Thompson or Tom Wolfe... Once you tune into his blending of third-person research with first-person anecdotes, the book pulls you along. Arms entertains — even as it educates."—The Winnipeg Free Press
"There are big parts of the book I disagree with, but [A.J. Somerset is] a very good writer. There are passages that are great … really, really interesting."—Cam Edwards, NRA News’ Cam & Co.
"Rambling, tragic, and surprisingly funny."—Quill & Quire
"A timely book that informs our ongoing conversation about gun violence."—Gill Deacon, CBC’s q
"A great book."—Emily Keeler, National Post
"A.J. Somerset's excellent — and, yes, timely — work of cultural history and social psychology goes behind the headlines ... in an attempt to locate the 'wellspring of crazy' that has created today's neo-Wild West. Witty and informed."—Waterloo Region Record
"In Arms, Somerset investigates the evolution of the gun as technology and as totem, exploring how a simple tool transformed into the symbol of a nation and a nation divided."—Inverse.com
"A very interesting read ... and not what you might expect ... if gun culture fascinates you ... I'd encourage you to check it out."—Ryan Jespersen, CHED Radio
"Absolutely fabulous."—Terry Moore, The Drive (CFAX Victoria)
"Thought-provoking ... A well-researched perspective on ... gun culture that can appeal to gun rights novices and those who are already well-versed in this debate."—McGill Tribune
In Arms, novelist, sports shooter, and former army reservist A.J. Somerset instills new life in the gun book's third wave: neither reportage nor redneck tourism, Arms brings ballistics, legal history, and criminology to bear on the gun in fiction and film. A sharp-eyed, snarky, sure-handed, and sportive take on America's favorite weapon.
A.J. Somerset's nonfiction has appeared in numerous outdoor magazines, and his first novel, Combat Camera, won the Metcalf-Rooke Award.
