Comments

I appreciate the comments that other authors offered at the time of publication:

“In Complicated Simplicity, Joy Davis has done for islands what Farley Mowat once did for wolves; she has provided a much deeper understanding and enlightenment of true island life, and the type of hardy, salty souls who choose off-grid islands as homes: where failure is knowledge, simplicity is best, and life is timed not so much by the clock but by the wind, the sun, and the tides. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever lived on an island, or dreamed of doing so.”
     Grant Lawrence, author of Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound

“Part memoirist and part guide, Joy Davis takes you along for a roller-coaster west-coast boat ride to all my favourite islands with all my favourite islanders as passengers—from Joe Martin on Echachis to the Kellers on Read—in all kinds of weather. If you lose everything else on the crossing, hang on to the book. You’ll have everything you need to survive!”
     Briony Penn, author of A Year on the Wild Side: A West Coast Naturalist’s Almanac

“Joy Davis provides wannabe islanders with a ‘how-to guide for island living,’ describing the complex realities of island life on the Pacific coast. Raised on Bath Island, she explores the joys and the hardships that make island life rewarding for some and not for others.”
Pat Carney, author of On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers and Trade Secrets

“Capturing ‘islandness’ is as elusive as catching a wave in a jar. But through her love of island places and her joy in island living, Joy Davis provides glimpses into how traits of islandness—ingenuity, living within limits, resilience—help us survive and thrive together on island earth.”
     Dr. Laurie Brinklow, Director, Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island

Complicated Simplicity captures both the dream and the realities of island life. Interviews with islanders reveal the true skill sets, both emotional and physical, required to overcome challenges and experience the wonder and majesty of life surrounded by water.”
     Sally-Christine Rodgers, author of Convergence: A Voyage Through French Polynesia

“It’s easy to get it wrong about islands. Complicated Simplicity, both the nonfiction endeavour and the phrase, gets it right. Joy Davis digs deeply into the elements that draw people to islands, the challenges they must overcome, and the compromises they must make to enjoy the often-sublime life available there.Complicated Simplicity is a journalistic inquiry, executed with integrity and sensitivity, that yields insight, wonder, and even joy.”
     Tom Groening, editor of Island Journal and The Working Waterfront

“Part memoir, part manual for slow(er) living, and part anthropological essay on the culture of small islands in the Pacific Northwest, Complicated Simplicity is bound to please armchair travellers, west coast historians, island studies scholars, and small islanders alike. Having read the book from Gabriola Island, Joy Davis’s words resounded with familiarity, observational insight, and truthfulness. But be warned: read this book and you’ll fall in love with this place.”
     Phillip Vannini, author of Ferry Tales and Off the Grid

“Joy Davis is an old-growth islander who values practical advice and good stories. She brings both to this funny, smart, poignant guide, along with a caution that the experience of island living is something you carry with you the rest of your life.”
     Donna Livingstone, president and CEO of the Glenbow Museum

And since Complicated Simplicity was published, the following reviews or commentaries have been posted….

BC Booklook: https://bcbooklook.com/2019/08/06/feral-living-on-remote-islands/

Literary Review of Canada: http://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/11/island-times/

The Island Institute (Maine) http://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/simplicity-seductive-complexity-price-paid

The Ormsby Review hhttps://ormsbyreview.com/2019/08/01/587-islands-ingenuity-and-islomania/

Pacific Yachting (December 2019), repeated in BC Magazine: https://wm-so.glb.shawcable.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en&id=348262&part=2.2

The Island Review: http://theislandreview.com/content/complicated-simplicity-joy-davis

International Small Island Studies Association Newsletter (January 2020): http://isisa.org

Mark Lester, Unique Properties:  https://www.marklesteruniqueproperties.com/complicated-simplicity-book-review/