diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 66c11b9..6ed90c0 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 import setuptools
+import codecs
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name='rethinkstuff',
-    version='0.1.5',
+    version='0.1.6',
     packages=['rethinkstuff'],
     classifiers=[
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
@@ -14,5 +15,6 @@ setuptools.setup(
     author='Noah Levitt',
     author_email='nlevitt@archive.org',
     description='Rudimentary rethinkdb python library with some smarts, perhaps some dumbs',
-    long_description=open('README.rst').read(),
+    long_description=codecs.open(
+        'README.rst', mode='r', encoding='utf-8').read(),
 )