My Utmost, Macy Halford
My Utmost, Macy Halford
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

My Utmost
A Devotional Memoir

Author: Macy Halford

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 12 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/07/2017


Synopsis

This is the beautifully written and heartfelt memoir of a young woman from Dallas, Texas, wrestling with the evangelical Christianity of her childhood by examining the one item from it that she is still attached to, the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.Raised in an evangelical household by her beloved grandmother and mother, Macy Halford eventually leaves Dallas for a career in journalism in New York City. She has only the devotional to remind her of her religious past—and learns quickly that, though the book sells nearly a million copies a year, no one she knows there has heard of it.Finally, excavating her spiky relations with her upbringing, she quits her coveted job at the New Yorker in order to look more deeply into the background of the devotional—with its daily selection from the sermons and writings of the Scottish evangelical preacher Oswald Chambers—wrestling with who Chambers really was, what ideas informed his teaching and beliefs, and why the book means so much to her.Halford interweaves her own story with that of the Chambers family: Oswald, who died ministering to British soldiers in Egypt in World War I, and his devoted wife, who spent her life publishing his speeches, sermons, and books. The result is that Halford has penned a captivating and candid memoir about what it means to be a Christian, a reader, and a seeker in the twenty-first century.

About Macy Halford

Macy Halford was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas, graduated from Barnard College, and worked at the New Yorker, where she eventually wrote most of the book reviews for the website.

About Karen White

Karen White has been narrating audiobooks since 1999, with more than two hundred to her credit. Honored to be included in AudioFile's Best Voices and Speaking of Audiobooks's Best Romance Audio 2012 and 2013, she is also an Audie Award finalist and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and Library Journal starred reviews. She currently lives with her family in Wilmington, North Carolina. Publishers Weekly says of Karen's narration of Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, "Karen White delivers a stunning reading, her character interpretations are confident and well-rounded, and she forges a strong bond with the audience." Speaking of Audiobooks says, "Karen is one of my auto-buy narrators-if I think a book may interest me, her narration will sway me to give it a try."


Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie - Girl About Library on February 17, 2017

This review, and many more, are available on my blog Girl About Library! As soon as I read the synopsis for "My Utmost" I knew I wanted to read it. I instantly felt a connection with the author Macy Halford, a former book blogger for "The New Yorker". Besides book blogging, Macy is also from Dallas,......more

Goodreads review by Todd on March 07, 2017

Many Christians grew up reading the devotional book by Oswald Chambers called My Utmost for His Highest. It was a classic although it was not popular or even available when Chambers was alive. Edited and published by his wife after his death, it is still widely read. Halford who has read Chambers al......more

Goodreads review by Sandra on February 02, 2018

Well, what a wonderful book that was! I had to sort of race through the last half (since I'm going on a 3-week trip in six days and am not nearly ready!), which was difficult to do since I was so busy copying passage after passage. I ended up with five pages of notes (single-spaced, on my Mac) and t......more

Goodreads review by Anne on April 28, 2019

My Utmost is a book about a book, My Utmost for His Highest, a book of daily readings designed to bring the reader closer to God, by Oswald Chambers. This book has sold over 13,000,000 copies since it was published in 1927, at least according to the internet. Macy Halford uses Chambers's book as a s......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on April 14, 2021

What a thoughtful engagement with and introduction to Oswald Chambers devotional book My Utmost for His Highest! The devotional book was read by Halford, her mother, and her grandmother. It was one of several multigenerational ties that bound the women together. Halford grew up in Dallas, TX and her......more


Quotes

“Both a mediation on ‘a complicated nostalgia’ for the faith of her childhood and an intellectual biography of Chambers.” New York Times Book Review

“Funny, smart, literate—a journey, not into or away from religious belief like so many religious memoirs, but through that belief.” Dallas Morning News

“Halford’s enlightening memoir is a must-read for those interested in My Utmost for His Highest or evangelicalism in the twenty-first century.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Self-aware but never self-indulgent, the book provides an edifying look at one person’s spiritual journey and the impact an obscure Scottish preacher’s musings can have years later.” Booklist


Awards

  • New York Times Pick