diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 18be2b49..84e67379 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ You can find a version of this documentation that is searchable and also easier
 
 There are many ways to run high availability with PostgreSQL; for a list, see the `PostgreSQL Documentation <https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Replication,_Clustering,_and_Connection_Pooling>`__.
 
-Patroni is a template for high availability (HA) PostgreSQL solutions using Python. For maximum accessibility, Patroni supports a variety of distributed configuration stores like `ZooKeeper <https://zookeeper.apache.org/>`__, `etcd <https://github.com/coreos/etcd>`__, `Consul <https://github.com/hashicorp/consul>`__ or `Kubernetes <https://kubernetes.io>`__. Database engineers, DBAs, DevOps engineers, and SREs who are looking to quickly deploy HA PostgreSQL in datacenters — or anywhere else — will hopefully find it useful.
+Patroni is a template for high availability (HA) PostgreSQL solutions using Python. For maximum accessibility, Patroni supports a variety of distributed configuration stores like `ZooKeeper <https://zookeeper.apache.org/>`__, `etcd <https://github.com/coreos/etcd>`__, `Consul <https://github.com/hashicorp/consul>`__ or `Kubernetes <https://kubernetes.io>`__. Database engineers, DBAs, DevOps engineers, and SREs who are looking to quickly deploy HA PostgreSQL in datacenters - or anywhere else - will hopefully find it useful.
 
 We call Patroni a "template" because it is far from being a one-size-fits-all or plug-and-play replication system. It will have its own caveats. Use wisely.
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index bff90cd4..8b14fed9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ class PyTest(_Command):
 
 
 def read(fname):
-    with open(os.path.join(__location__, fname)) as fd:
+    with open(os.path.join(__location__, fname), encoding='utf-8') as fd:
         return fd.read()