Weeks This Last On Week Week List Fiction 1 1 5 HEARTBEAT, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte, $21.95.) A chance meeting of a man and a woman, both with successful careers in television, enables them to solve their marital and romantic problems. 2 14 2 THE DRUID OF SHANNARA, by Terry Brooks. (Del Rey/Ballantine, $19.95.) A new volume in a series about the fantasy land of Shannara. 3 4 2 THE EAGLE HAS FLOWN, by Jack Higgins. (Simon & Schuster, $21.95.) A German general and an I.R.A. assassin plot a daring rescue attempt during World War II. 4 2 6 FORGIVING, by LaVyrle Spencer. (Putnam, $19.95.) A young woman finds familial problems and love in Dakota Territory. 5 3 9 COLD FIRE, by Dean R. Koontz. (Putnam, $22.95.) A despondent reporter finds hope and romance while she tracks the course of a good Samaritan. 6 5 23 THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE, by Jean M. Auel. (Crown, $24.95.) A couple on horseback trek across Europe in the Ice Age. 7 6 7 MAGIC HOUR, by Susan Isaacs. (HarperCollins, $21.95.) The romantic and professional lives of a homicide detective become entangled as he investigates a murder in the Hamptons. 8 12 2 THE FIRM, by John Grisham. (Doubleday, $19.95.) A young lawyer learns that the firm he recently joined is engaged in secret, possibly illegal activities. 9 8 9 CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, by Maeve Binchy. (Delacorte, $19.95.) The coming of age of women in an Irish village and in Dublin's academia. 10 13 11 THE SECRET PILGRIM, by John le Carre. (Knopf, $21.95.) A member of British intelligence recalls his three decades as a spy. 11 * 19 THE WITCHING HOUR, by Anne Rice. (Knopf, $22.95.) The relationship of a professional woman, the descendant of witches, and a rich man. 12 53 OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! by Dr. Seuss. (Random House, $12.95.) The problems of finding your way through life; in verse and pictures. 13 * 7 6 THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES, by Martha Grimes. (Little, Brown, $19.95.) Scotland Yard's Richard Jury finds himself a suspect in the strange death of a widow from England's Lake District. 14 * 10 9 BATTLEGROUND, by W. E. B. Griffin. (Putnam, $19.95.) The experiences of marines from Midway to Guadalcanal. 15 * 9 14 POSSESSION, by A. S. Byatt. (Random House, $22.95.) A pair of British academics pursue the relationship between two Victorian poets. Weeks This Last On Week Week List Nonfiction 1 2 18 IRON JOHN, by Robert Bly. (Addison-Wesley, $18.95.) The passage of the male from boyhood into manhood, as practiced in various cultures. 2 1 6 AND THE SEA WILL TELL, by Vincent Bugliosi with Bruce B. Henderson. (Norton, $22.95.) An enigmatic 1974 murder case involving two American couples on a Pacific atoll. 3 3 8 THE PRIZE, by Daniel Yergin. (Simon & Schuster, $24.95.) The role that oil has played in world history from the mid-19th century to the present. 4 4 3 THE NEXT CENTURY, by David Halberstam. (Morrow, $16.95.) A journalist's assessment of the prospects for various countries. 5 6 33 YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND, by Deborah Tannen. (Morrow, $18.95.) The different languages men and women speak. 6 9 24 THE CIVIL WAR, by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns. (Knopf, $50.) From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, in words and pictures. 7 5 19 A LIFE ON THE ROAD, by Charles Kuralt. (Putnam, $19.95.) The newscaster's recollections. 8 7 26 MILLIE'S BOOK, as dictated to Barbara Bush. (Morrow, $17.95.) The White House dog's memoirs. 9 1 RIDERS ON THE STORM, by John Densmore. (Delacorte, $19.95.) Memories of Jim Morrison and the Doors, from the rock band's drummer. 10 15 22 DARKNESS VISIBLE, by William Styron. (Random House, $15.95.) The novelist's memoir of a period of severe depression. 11 * 11 10 THE NEW RUSSIANS, by Hedrick Smith. (Random House, $24.95.) The profound changes in the Soviet Union during the past 15 years. 12 12 10 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF CHILDREN, by Robert Coles. (Davison/Houghton Mifflin, $22.95.) Children's perceptions of God and salvation. 13 10 9 PATRIMONY, by Philip Roth. (Simon & Schuster, $19.95.) The novelist tells of his father's struggle with a fatal brain tumor. 14 14 3 BREAKING BARRIERS, by Carl T. Rowan. (Little, Brown, $22.95.) The memoirs of the black journalist who served as a Government official during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. 15 2 IN OUR DEFENSE, by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy. (Morrow, $22.95.) How the Bill of Rights affects Americans' lives today. 16 * 13 6 THE JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO, by Shintaro Ishihara. (Simon & Schuster, $18.95.) A Japanese politician contends his homeland will surpass the United States and become "first among equals." Weeks This Last On Week Week List Advice, How-to and Miscellaneous 1 2 32 HOMECOMING, by John Bradshaw. (Bantam, $18.95.) How to find the child you once were that lives within you. 2 1 16 FINANCIAL SELF-DEFENSE, by Charles J. Givens. (Simon & Schuster, $22.95.) A Florida entrepreneur's advice about managing money. 3 3 103 WEALTH WITHOUT RISK, by Charles J. Givens. (Simon & Schuster, $19.95.) Financial advice. 4 4 16 FIND WALDO NOW, by Martin Handford. (Little, Brown, $12.95.) A book of illustrations in which the game is to find a fellow named Waldo. 5 * 5 64 THE GREAT WALDO SEARCH, by Martin Handford. (Little, Brown, $12.95.) A book of illustrated games. 6 * 20 WHERE'S WALDO? by Martin Handford. (Little, Brown, $12.95.) A book of illustrated games. These listings are based on computer-processed sales figures from 3,000 bookstores and from representative wholesalers with more than 28,000 other retail outlets, including variety stores and supermarkets. The figures are statistically adjusted to represent sales in all such outlets across the United States. *An asterisk before a book's title indicates that its sales, weighted to reflect the book-selling industry nationally, are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. And Bear in Mind

(Editors' choices of other recent books of particular interest)

IN SEARCH OF HUMAN NATURE: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought, by Carl N. Degler. (Oxford University, $24.95.) A masterly guide to the history of the nature/nurture debate and the reverberations of Darwinian ideas in both popular and academic social thinking.

MODELS OF MY LIFE, by Herbert A. Simon. (Basic Books, $26.95.) The Nobel laureate's autobiography shows his scientific activity -- most notably, his work in artificial intelligence -- as a deeply personal enterprise, a product not of irresistible technology but of the esthetic and self-examination of the researcher himself.

CHICAGO LOOP, by Paul Theroux. (Random House, $20.) A hard, unrelentingly bleak novel that is an exploration of one man's violent sexual nightmare, his crime and his punishment.

BEYOND THE CURVE, by Kobo Abe. (Kodansha, $18.95.) The dozen stories in Mr. Abe's first story collection in English place his boundlessly confident protagonists in impossible situations.

KISS OUT, by Jill Eisenstadt. (Knopf, $19.95.) A novel of extravagant wackiness, eccentricity and exuberance, featuring a Queens rock singer who loves a virgin from New Jersey.

MARTIN & MALCOLM & AMERICA: A Dream or a Nightmare, by James H. Cone. (Orbis, $22.95.) A theologian argues that the visions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were converging in their final years into a joint legacy all Americans can profit by.

ONE OF US: Richard Nixon and the American Dream, by Tom Wicker. (Random House, $24.95.) This scrupulous and unconventional account by a Times columnist agrees with the emerging consensus about Mr. Nixon's great abilities, but locates his accomplishments more in domestic than foreign affairs.