My take away from the book is to find what the other parties want to talk about and get them to talk about it. Also that controversial topics generally make conversations more memorable and form more intimate relationships.
If you haven't already read Carnegie, "How to win friends and influence people" is a surprisingly useful book on the same subject. Comes with some mnemonic devices and a lot of salient day to day advice in addition to the conversational tips.
I generally go with "what did you get up to today?" Then ask follow up questions on whatever seems interesting or like they would want to talk about more.