Using the Library | Catalog/Account | eContent |  Research | Services | Events | About Us New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers August 30, 2015 1. Plunder and Deceit: Big Government's Exploitation of Young People and the Future by Mark R. Levin The talk-radio host urges young Americans to resist the statist masterminds who, he says, are burdening them with debt and inferior education. 2. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story by the national correspondent of The Atlantic, framed as a letter to his teenage son. 3. You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day A memoir of rising to stardom in the web video world. 4. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough The story of the bicycle mechanics from Ohio who ushered in the age of flight.   5. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg The comedian enlists a sociologist to help him understand today's dating scene. 6. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande The surgeon and New Yorker writer considers how doctors fail patients at the end of life and how they can do better. 7. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson The last voyage of the Lusitania, the passenger liner sunk by a German torpedo in 1915. 8. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan A surfing chronical and memoir by a New Yorker writer. 9. My Fight / Your Fight by Ronda Rousey with Maria Burns Ortiz The U.F.C women's bantamweight champion's struggles to succeed. 10 Down the Rabbit Hole: The Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny by Holly Madison Life inside the Playboy Mansion, by a former bunny and girlfriend of Hugh Hefner.  11. The Road to Character by David Brooks The Times columnist extols personal virtues like kindness and honesty in a materialistic age. 12. A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter At 90, the 39th president (and Nobel Prize winner) reflects on his private and public life. 13. Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey The study of dolphins: research, cultural significance. threats. 14. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance Musk's life from his difficult South African childhood to his involvement in Internet start-ups like SpaceX. 15. The Oregon Trail: An American Journey by Rinker Buck The author and his brother travel 2,000 miles by mule and wagon from Missouri to Oregon. 16. The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman A  journalist's biography of Adolf Tolkachev, who spied for the United States inside the Soviet Union..  © 2015 All rights reserved by New York Times Syndication Sales Corp. This material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.   A version of this list appears in the August 30, 2015 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending August 15, 2015. Subscribe to other newsletters | View newsletter archives | Readers' Club on library website