With summer here, it’s time to take a break from the fast-paced life of the school year and enjoy a little vacation time. Before you get packed, let me offer some beach-book suggestions of a more spiritual bent than the usual fare.

If you’ve never encountered the Mitford series by Jan Karon, I think you would truly enjoy this bit of small-town escapism. The six-volume series chronicles the adventures of Fr. Tim, an Episcopal rector, in the North Carolina village of Mitford. This is old-fashioned life at its best, where good heartedness and kindness prevail amid the quirkiness of the locals. Start with At Home in Mitford and read through the whole series!

For those inclined to the psychological thriller, Susan Howatch’s Starbridge double-trilogy will leave you spellbound. She weaves deep theological insight and Christian mysticism together with her characters’ struggles with sexual passion, human vice, and the search for existential meaning. The first volume, Glittering Images, is set within an English Cathedral in the 1930s. The five sequels move forward in time, ending just before the turn of the century. Herself a patron of the church, Howatch donated a portion of her books’ proceeds to endow a new Chair of Theology at Cambridge University.

If you prefer historical fiction dealing with an earlier era, try James Michener’s The Source. It takes you through an archaeological mound in Israel (“tel-Makor”), stratum by stratum, telling the story associated with an artifact deposited in each. There’s no more enjoyable way to learn ancient history!

Well-done novels about Biblical characters are rare, but Walter Murphy’s Upon this Rock is one of the few. A devout Roman Catholic, Murphy portrays a very human St. Peter while maintaining a reverent tone throughout. Indeed, the first-person narrator of the novel, “Quintus,” is himself an early Christian convert.

Medieval England has been an interesting backdrop for many a charming tale. Two of the best are Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, set in twelfth-century Britain, and Edward Rutherford’s Sarum, which weaves yarns about the building of Salisbury Cathedral, constructed not far from the enigmatic pre-Christian monument, Stonehenge.

Interested in Pohick’s past? Try Eye of the Storm, the recently published diaries and drawings of Pvt. Robert Sneden, a member of the 40th New York Volunteers during the Civil War. Part of his odyssey involved spending several weeks at Pohick Church in 1862, which he describes in vivid detail. See also his watercolor of Pohick in the companion volume, Images from the Storm.

If you can find a copy, a fun way to introduce your young children to Pohick’s past is through Marguerite Henry’s Cinnabar: The One O’Clock Fox. It’s about a mischievous fox who leads George Washington on a noble chase around the environs of Mt. Vernon. One of his stops is at Pohick Church, which is illustrated across several pages. My own daughter Mary so delighted in this book that she now sleeps at night with a stuffed fox named Cinnabar!

For your teenagers, they will, of course, soon be immersed in the latest Harry Potter tome. When they come up for air, there are two recent novels that have been called the “Christian Harry Potter”: G. P. Taylor’s Shadowmancer and Wormwood. Though they have yet to ignite great interest on this side of the Atlantic, Taylor’s volumes are reportedly taking young readers in England by storm. The author is a priest in the Church of England, and he endeavors to weave more overtly Christian themes within a Harry Potter-like narrative.

Finally, for older teens and young adults, especially young women, a recent volume has attracted a lot of attention: Girl meets God, by Lauren Winner. It’s a spiritual autobiography of a bright and free-thinking young woman who converted to Orthodox Judaism as a teen, and then became a Christian after a conversion experience several years later. Living in Charlottesville now, she’s a twenty-something Episcopalian who occasionally speaks at diocesan events. It’s a great book for anyone who has had struggles with their faith and is seeking resolution in their spiritual lives.

So, there you have it. Head to Borders, surf to Amazon.com or, better yet, give Oscar Wells a call. Armed with several of these volumes, I promise you, your beach experience will be more spiritual than ever. And when you return from your holiday, please let me know what you think of my suggestions!

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By July, a position announcement should have been published for a new Minister of Music. Hopefully, this will attract several quality candidates to be interviewed. In the meantime, please keep the Search Committee (Mason Botts, Jacqueline Wells, Jud Sage, Don Brownlee, Kate Collins, Shirley Kapusciarz, and Michelle Booth) in your prayers!