Big City Small Spaces

I’ll admit: I approached *Big City Small Spaces* skeptical that yet another vertical gardening book could teach me anything new. Boy, was I wrong. RyLee Reads’ background as a city dweller (not a suburban homesteader) shines in chapters like ‘The Renter’s Loophole,’ where they detail how to anchor gardens without violating leases—using everything from tension rods to repurposed IKEA shelves. The narration by Mark Wheeler elevates the material; his dry humor when describing ‘the great basil tragedy of 2020’ (a cautionary tale about overwatering) had me laughing out loud on my commute. That said, the audiobook’s brevity is a double-edged sword. While the tight runtime keeps momentum, it occasionally rushes past complex topics—like electrical setups for grow lights—where a slower deep dive would’ve been welcome. The production quality is solid, though I docked half a star for a recurring issue: Wheeler’s pronunciation of botanical Latin (*Epipremnum aureum* becomes ‘epi-PREM-num OR-ee-um’ one minute, ‘epi-PREH-mum AW-reum’ the next). It’s a minor gripe, but in a genre where precision matters, it grated. Still, the audiobook’s greatest strength is its *attitude*. This isn’t passive listening; it’s a call to grab a drill and a bag of potting mix. By the final chapter, I’d already texted my partner a photo of our fireplace (RIP, functionality) with the caption ‘Trellis potential?’ Mission accomplished.