For the majority of users, the best option for a Peercoin wallet is now Peerunity. It is available for Windows, Linux, and OS X. It has more features than the standard client, and is also much easier to use (especially for minting).
Download it here: http://peercoin.net/download-peerunity
Read about Peerunity and FAQs: http://www.peercointalk.org/index.php?topic=2902.0
To mint using Peerunity:
Minting is now very easy. All you need to do is enable it in your client, and leave your client running with a connection to the Peercoin network. To start with, make sure you have encrypted your client with a strong passphrase that you will not lose. You will now need to get some coins in your wallet!
Then simply press the “Unlock Wallet for Minting Only” button, enter your passphrase and press OK.
You can check you are minting by looking at the little padlock in the bottom right corner of the client. It should now be unlocked. If you hover your mouse over it, it should say “Wallet is encypted and currently unlocked for block minting only”.
How long it takes you to mint a block will depend on how many coins you have, and how long you’ve had them. Here’s a handy tool to work out your chances: http://poscalculator.peercointalk.org/ (The current POS difficulty can be found by entering the command [font=courier]getdifficulty[/font] into the debug console of Peerunity…go to help -> debug window -> console).
Edit: The new minting tab in Peerunity v0.1.1 now shows some of this information too.