diff --git a/README.rdoc b/README.rdoc
index 1c9b1e9..2b68b15 100644
--- a/README.rdoc
+++ b/README.rdoc
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ Simple FFI wrappers for things I need from ICU. For the full thing, check out IC
 
 = Dependencies
 
-ICU. If you get messages that the library or functions are not found, you can 
-set some env vars to tell ffi-icu where to find it:
+ICU. If you get messages that the library or functions are not found, you can
+set some environment varibles to tell ffi-icu where to find it:
 
-...
+FFI_ICU_LIB="icui18n.so" FFI_ICU_VERSION_SUFFIX="_3_8" ruby -r ffi-icu
 
 = Features
 
diff --git a/lib/ffi-icu/lib.rb b/lib/ffi-icu/lib.rb
index 91bae2c..87bf21d 100644
--- a/lib/ffi-icu/lib.rb
+++ b/lib/ffi-icu/lib.rb
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ module ICU
     def self.find_icu
       suffix = ''
 
+      # let the user tell us where the lib is
       if ENV['FFI_ICU_LIB']
         libs = ENV['FFI_ICU_LIB'].split(",")
         ffi_lib *libs
@@ -25,9 +26,12 @@ module ICU
           return ENV['FFI_ICU_VERSION_SUFFIX']
         elsif num = libs.first[/\d+$/]
           return num.split(//).join("_")
+        else
+          return suffix
         end
       end
 
+      # ok, try to find it
       case ICU.platform
       when :osx
         ffi_lib "icucore"