diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 46baef0..ecef86a 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,29 @@
 Changelog
 ---------
 
+**0.8.6 (release 2020-08-20)**
+
+- The largest change was to the ReadTheDocs documentation system. It had not
+  been updated in a long time, and the auto-update CI was broken. Many sections
+  were updated, the auto-build was fixed (now using a .readthedocs.yml file),
+  a separate top-level section for "readers" (often referred to as "plugins") was
+  implemented, and many docstrings were updated and enhanced to ensure the
+  formatting works well. Additional documentation was added for CUAHSI readers.
+- Bug fixes and small enhancements for multiple readers:
+  cpc, cuahsi.his_central, cuahsi.wof, usgs.eddn, usgs.nwis
+- cuahsi.wof and cuahsi.his_central: added optional `user_cache` argument to
+  service requests, to direct WSDL caching files to user app directory.
+  Avoids problems with the user not having permission to write cache files
+  to the system tmp space (the default)
+- usgs.eddn: generalized twdb_fts parser to accept batter_voltage and
+  water_level data in any order
+- usgs.nwis:
+    - `get_site_data` can now accept a list of parameter codes as an argument
+       instead of a string of comma separated values
+    - enabled retrieval of iv data prior to 2007
+- Fixed or updated several tests
+
+
 **0.8.5 (release 2019-03-22)**
 
 - Bug fixes and some small enhancements for multiple plugins:
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index b9b46e8..21c3194 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ Features
 --------
 
 - retrieves and parses datasets from the web
-- returns simple python data structures that can be easily pulled into `more
-  sophisticated tools`_ for analysis
+- returns simple python data structures that can be easily pulled into more
+  sophisticated tools such as Pandas for analysis
 - caches datasets locally and harvests updates as needed
 
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ way to get things up and running is to use a scientific python distribution that
 will install everything together. A full list is available on the `scipy`_
 website but `Anaconda`_ / `Miniconda`_ is recommended as it is the easiest to set up.
 
-If you are using Anaconda/Miniconda then you can install ulmo from the `conda_forge`_
+If you are using Anaconda/Miniconda then you can install ulmo from the `conda-forge`_
 channel with the following command:
 
     conda install -c conda-forge ulmo