Totally agree with the above. The teachers who say, "oh I never use the book. We just talk."
For me you should practise the vocab and the sentence structure within the topic.
I often match it up to a Unit in the book I am teaching to further discussion
I use this material a lot. It is a great website.
Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom (I-TESL-J)
Cheers