Phonetics may be defined as the science of speech. It is concerned with all aspects of the production, transmission and perception of the sounds of language. (From the entry for Phonetics by Michael Ashby in the Oxford Bibliographies Online.)
Below are some key (online) reference works for phonetics.
UBC Library, like most academic libraries, uses Library of Congress Subject Headings. Books on Phonetics can be found in the UBC Library catalogue under these Subject Headings:
For books on the phonetics of a specific language, use this format (replace 'French' with whichever language you are interested in):