Book Release Celebration with Mary Katherine Backstrom

Name: Book Release Celebration with Mary Katherine Backstrom
Start: 2025-08-12T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-08-12T19:00:00-05:00
Location: 14 Main Street, Suite B, Madison, AL, United States, Alabama 35758

Schedule

Tue Aug 12 2025 at 05:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

14 Main Street, Suite B, Madison, AL, United States, Alabama 35758 | Madison, AL

Join Blue Apple Books as we celebrate bestselling Huntsville author Mary Katherine Backstrom's newest book, Not That Wheel, Jesus!, which will release on Tuesday, August 12, 2025. The event will be a come-and-go, ticketed reception held at Blue Apple Books (14 Main Street, Suite B, Madison) from 5-7 PM, with attendees having the chance to personally congratulate Mary Katherine and have their books signed.
YOUR $40 TICKET INCLUDES:
- One hardcover copy of Not That Wheel, Jesus!
- Charcuterie and a cocktail or mocktail
- 10% off any purchases at Blue Apple Books / South & Pine during the event.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
From the bestselling author of Holy Hot Mess, Not That Wheel, Jesus! is a laugh-out-loud look at what happens when life goes a direction we didn't expect and we are forced to reconsider the beliefs, assumptions, and stories that have always steered our course.
Mary Katherine Backstrom grew up the most basic of all youth group kids—pH level 14—and her faith only grew as she led youth ministry, served as a missionary, and went on to become a bestselling Christian author. She knew all the practiced, perfect Sunday school answers and was driving happily down the straight and narrow, until one day her young son asked a simple question: will my Jewish best friend go to hell?
In the months and years that followed, that single question continued to snowball. MK challenged and reconsidered every part of the faith she’d been raised to accept so completely. Not That Wheel, Jesus! is Mary Katherine’s hilarious journey from certainty to doubt to going nuclear on the socials (“it was my heresy era”), and then of slowly and painfully finding her way back to a different, less defined faith.
It’s the heartfelt and achingly honest story of a spirituality that went off the road and crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, right before God and everybody. And then, slowly, through grace and plenty of therapy, grew richer and deeper than she ever could have imagined.

ABOUT MARY KATHERINE:
I am a published author and my work includes two National best sellers--Holy Hot Mess, 2021 and Crazy Joy, 2022. Outside of the book, I regularly write and create videos for social media--where my work has received national recognition, awards, and even landed me an in-person interview with Ellen. (It was the Christmas episode that gives out presents, and I still can't believe this is my life).
I'm a cancer survivor, a mental health activist, and an LGBTQIA affirming Christian. Also, I regularly speak about surviving childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and recently partnered with the National Children's Advocacy Center to raise awareness on CSA related issues.
I lead an online community of millions and they are the greatest audience that's ever existed. They are generous, funny, and kind, and the only reason I still do the whole Facebook thing--because let's be honest, that place is a mess these days. I love in-person events and have spoken all over the USA. My audience supported charity, Moving Kindness, raised half a million dollars for various causes in 2022/2023.
The fun stuff?
I'm a living kidney donor, I'm obsessed with Broadway, I'm a mother of two freaking-hilarious children, my comfort food is soup dumplings from Trader Joes, and when I'm not watching plays or chasing my kids around the house, I can be found on the trails of Monte Sano, hiding from the outside world.